Storm Lowry landed early in Dáil Éireann.
And there was a complete pandemonium.
The Government knew it was coming but decided it was unimportant.
Bad call.
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It was a miracle the roof stayed on with all the roaring. There were rolling ructions all day in the chamber. Breakaway groups of Opposition TDs formed angry huddles on the chamber floor.
Government TDs looked on in disbelief.
High above sea-level in the safety of the Distinguished Visitors’ Gallery sat the wife and family of outgoing Tánaiste Micheál Martin. This was a very special event for them as they would finally be present to see him elected taoiseach at the second time of asking.
On the first occasion, Covid restrictions meant they had to stay at home in Cork while he achieved his life’s ambition in the cavernous surroundings of the Dublin Convention Centre.
[ How it happened: Unprecedented and chaotic scenes in the DáilOpens in new window ]
The storm knocked their hopes off course. Dressed to the nines and all set for a big day out, they left disappointed.
An incandescent Opposition combined to scupper Micheál’s installation. In more than 100 years of Dáil Éireann, this has never happened before.
Amid astonishing scenes in the chamber, they revolted against a cynical move by opportunistic Independents to muscle in on their speaking time and resources while simultaneously enjoying government preferment with ministerial positions and promises of largesse underpinning their loyalty.
Micheal Lowry, of Moriarty Tribunal infamy, negotiated this deal. With just seven TDs in his regional group, he landed an impressive haul of four super ninja junior ministers and a nod-and-wink wish list of constituency largesse for the remaining three.
And then, because enough is never enough where Lowry is concerned (at least that’s how the report of the State tribunal saw it), they had to go further and demand that the three not sorted with ministries must be sorted out by leeching more speaking time off the Opposition.
But the Opppostion wanted none of this, pushing back in spectacular fashion when the Dáil returned after a long Christmas break on Wednesday.
They will not stand for this new coalition of Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Tweedledeals.
[ Verona Murphy’s turbulent first day: ‘She should have got the metre stick out’Opens in new window ]
Early on, the new Ceann Comhairle was hit by a wall of their anger and defiance.
It knocked Verona Murphy for six. She endured a torrid first day in the eye of the storm.
Meanwhile, her predecessor sat like a happy Buddha in the back row of the chamber, watching on as the carnage unfolded around her .
Arms folded, smiling serenely, Seán Ó Fearghaíl silently took in the unfolding chaos.
The anger and frustration increased on the Opposition benches as the morning progressed. With business beginning at 11am, the nomination of the new taoiseach was set to be done and dusted by lunchtime. Following the traditional dash to Áras an Uachtaráin for the President to seal the deal, the new taoiseach would enjoy some lunch and then select his ministers.
The new cabinet members would be in place by teatime.
Instead the timetable was thrashed. All that happened at teatime was an announcement that the two Coalition leaders – Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin – would be making a joint statement on the fiasco on the plinth.
But even that was a disaster. It seems protocol didn’t allow it. The media was directed to outside the gates on Merrion Street. And then moved on again to the footpath outside Government Buildings.
Chaos in Leinster House: how the day unfolded and what happens next
Micheal Lowry, the man who negotiated the incendiary deal with a government which didn’t foresee any problems, an hour earlier, was able to stroll outside and hold forth on how his Regional Independents are really the victim in this appalling opposition enterprise.
It was clear from the outset that the day would not go smoothly. The first row was over the Government’s proposal to scarper for another two weeks once the new government and ministers were officially in place.
“Get to work”, said Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, before she tore into the “cynical ruse” cooked up between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry-led Regional Independents in an attempt to take speaking time from “genuine members” of the Opposition.
Six hours later, after the debacle finally lurched to inconclusive fiasco, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste blamed Sinn Féin for stirring it all up. But the anger came from all sides of the Opposition.
It was Labour’s Ivana Bacik who engineered the walkout which saw proceedings abandoned. The Social Democrats were similarly up in arms. The members of Independent Ireland forsook their erstwhile rural and regional colleagues and joined in while Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit was utterly outraged.
After making a right hames of chairing the proceedings, when Verona Murphy tried to move things on by calling for the nominations to begin and a vote to follow, it wasn’t just Sinn Féin jumping up and protesting.
Instead, in was one of the most remarkable scenes ever witnessed in the Dáil chamber, deputies from all strands of the Opposition rose as one in a furious chorus of defiance and objection.
The non-commissioned officers of the Regional Independents – Lowry, Barry Heneghan, Gillian Toole and Danny Healy-Rae – were not smirking now. Nor was Lowry waving dismissively at speakers the way he did when they first started tearing into their tawdry arrangement.
The Ceann Comhairle’s independence was called into question more than once. Verona Murphy, formerly of the Regional Independents, landed the job as an early sweetener for the group.
This riled up the Government side.
But across the floor, they were queuing up to excoriate Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and their Independent fellow Government supports who are now the cuckoos in the Opposition nest.
When asked afterwards to say whether they were members of his government or not – the answer is the key to this whole mess – the taoiseach-in-waiting didn’t answer.
[ In visuals: An unprecedented, scrappy and chaotic day in the DáilOpens in new window ]
Eventually, with Sinn Féin’s loudest TDs leading the charge and multiples of deputies on their feet and roaring at the chair at the same time, Verona Murphy suspended the house.
The Ceann Comhairle didn’t reappear when she was supposed to, having arrived late at the start of the session too. The packed chamber was left waiting. And waiting.
When she finally returned, it all kicked off again.
At one point, nine TDs were on their hind legs and howling. Verona removed her glasses with a trembling hand and gave her bell a timid tinkle.
The Taoiseach and Tánaiste were shouting back at Sinn Féin.
“We won’t stand for it,” Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould repeatedly shouted, from a standing position.
Verona bailed out again.
Hands in pockets, Michael Lowry ambled down to the chamber floor and gravitated towards the government benches, shooting the breeze with Paschal Donohoe and sundry ministerial hopefuls.
Danny Healy-Rae wandered around with a seating plan in his hand. The Clerk of the Dáil looked very worried as he checked the chamber. To one side, Boxer Moran and Marian Harkin were exchanging heated words, sotto voce, an ashed-faced Michael Healy-Rae between them.
Senior figures in the main Opposition parties held impromptu huddles on the chamber floor. It was lunchtime and nothing done.
And what about Micheal D.waiting in the Áras with plates of soggy sandwiches?
What of him. No sign of Verona after she was due back in again. Micheál went up to the gallery and sat on the railing, chatting to his wife Mary.
[ Lowry accuses Sinn Féin of 'shameful' behaviour in DáilOpens in new window ]
“She waited a long time for this day,” said an onlooker.
“And she’s still waiting,” said another.
The deliberations on getting the session under way moved to another part of the building. Reporters followed Michael Lowry down a corridor and stood at a distance as he made a phone call, trying to catch what he was saying. Then it transpired that Verona was asked to leave one of the meetings because it wasn’t helpful to have her present.
Apparently agreement was reached. Or maybe not. One Labour TD said Lowry was “doing a dog-in-the-manger act”.
“I got a text asking where is Verona?” said one of his colleagues.
“In Italy.”
Lowry repaired to the plinth like the pied piper, with a tail of hacks in tow.
It seems Ursula von der Leyen tweeted congratulations to the new Taoiseach. The message was deleted.
Then word came that Aontu would no longer stay in a technical group with the Regionals. There was a rumour that Mattie McGrath was doing the same. Why did you join them in the first place, Mattie?
“I need speaking time. A dumb priest doesn’t get a parish.”
The time dragged on. The chamber was full, Taoiseach and Tánaiste waiting too. Huddles still going on. Mary Lou McDonald said something to the Clerk of the Dáil.
Later on, Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton said that was when she knew “the game was up”.
The light was fading. Hildegarde came in and said there was an agreement. Verona commenced the nomination process and called on Albert Dolan, the youngest member of government to speak.
“There is no agreement,” howled Pádraig Mac Lochlainn of Sinn Féin, and then all hell broke loose.
Poor Albert tried to express his great honour in nominating Micheál. He was drowned out. There was uproar. Opposition deputies on their feet. Ivana Bacik looked across to Mary Lou and gestured.
She gathered her papers and walked out. Mary Lou tucked her documents under her arm, but stayed shouting. Eventually, she too walked.
Verona shut up shop. “That’s it til tomorrow morning.”
Ivana returned and went up to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. They were not happy to see her. Heated words were exchanged and then Simon Harris threw out his arm in a dismissive gesture, turned on his heels and marched up the steps.
[ Verona Murphy makes Dáil history as first woman Ceann ComhairleOpens in new window ]
There was a stunned silence in the chamber. Then deputies slowly left. Last to leave was a group of ministerial hopefuls, many of them with family there to witness their elevation, talking in hushed tones. Shocked.
Micheal Lowry ambled over to talk to them.
Nobody was happy. Everyone was angry, not least the Taoiseach and Tánaiste when they held their press briefing.
Why can’t they offer the Regional Independents government speaking time? Is that too hard to ask? Or are they too choosy and unwilling to accept what actualgovernment deputies have to accept?
That would solve everything.
It seems so daft that they are willing to march up the hill on this issue.
Just who is wagging the tail in this government of Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Tweedledeal?
Storm continues on Thursday.
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