Ambitious, combative and delivering her message with apparently unshakeable self belief: it was a vintage Lucinda Creighton performance as the former Fine Gael junior minister promised a new party within eight weeks. Ms Creighton pitched her as yet unnamed movement as the plucky little fellow preparing to take on the giants of the political establishment in a David versus Goliath battle.
“It will of course be hard. Slings and arrows are at the ready, pointed at us,” Ms Creighton said, as she appealed to people from all walks of life to sign up to the new party. “The challenge is clearly immense. The odds are clearly highly stacked against us, but volunteerism is the only way in which together we can defeat the crony culture of our political establishment and create an entirely new way of doing business in this country.”
The big reveal at the event in the ultra-modern Marker Hotel in Dublin 2 was the man at Ms Creighton's side. Financial adviser and commentator Eddie Hobbs reminded those present that 10 years had passed since he presented the boom-time television programme Rip-Off Republic.
Now, with the traditional parties being “deserted in droves” by voters searching for a new way ahead, he said he wanted to shape a new political movement dedicated to a new type of governance.
The format of the new party has remained a secret since planning began last April and Mr Hobbs kept the cryptic mood going. He spoke of an impressive organisational structure behind the scenes with 100 volunteers, already working on the party’s behalf but, under questioning, admitted he did not know who most of the activists were were.
“One of the successes of the organisation has been its ability to act in secrecy until now, so the answer is I don’t know the hundred people that are involved in the organisation yet. But we’ll all be getting to know each other very, very closely over the next few weeks. I do know the cell that I worked within up until now.”
Also flanking Ms Creighton was Offaly-based Independent councillor John Leahy, an unknown in the eyes of the Dublin media, who stressed the need to protect and promote small farms. "He's pushing the rural buttons, we hope," a party aide ventured.
Entrepreneurs got a number of mentions during the press conference, not least in the first of the party’s four founding principles, which Ms Creighton insisted would be “bound by conviction, truth and accountability”.
Perhaps conscious however that the party could be typecast as some kind of reborn Progressive Democrats, Ms Creighton offered an almost exhaustive list of people who were “needed and wanted” by the party as candidates, policy advisers, advocates and supporters.
Also on her list were special needs assistants, accountants, scientists, charity workers, trade union officials, solicitors “and all other walks of life and none who are committed to rebooting Ireland”.
