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Pat Rabbitte has today stepped down as leader of Ireland’s third-largest political party after Fine Gael and the government party Fianna Fáil. Rabbitte, who failed to become elected on the first count in his Dublin West constituency on May 25th 2007, has been leader of Labour since 2002, succeeding former Finance Minister in the Rainbow Coalition Ruarí Quinn.

Mr. Rabbitte, another of the wiley Mayo men to come to power over the last 20 years, made a venerable speech this afternoon, accepting full responsibility for not ensuring a change of government. However, in my opinion, Mr. Rabbitte had little to do with the reclaimation of seats for Fine Gael to their 1997 levels after the catastophe of the 2002 elections. Instead many, including myself, would’ve liked to have seen Labour siding with Fianna Fáil to ensure a popular choice for government, as exposed on RTÉ’s The Week In Politics ‘Frank Opinion’ series, with US election specialist Frank Luntz. Instead, Rabbitte chose to stand against Fianna Fáil in offering his support and dooming his party’s future by siding with Enda Kenny’s out-of-touch panache and penchant for power.

Rabbitte leaves a party in tatters after losing one seat in the 2007 general election and what many criticise as the oldest party in Ireland in terms of its membership. Regardless of who succeeds the Mayo man before September 26th, odds are they’ll need to spend the next 5 years undergoing massive re-branding and recruiting from young bases much like Ógra Fianna Fáil have been doing in recent years.

A great orator in terms of getting a point across, however he won’t be missed as much as former Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and to a lesser degree, former Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell.

Read his full speech here.

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From the Irish Independent newspaper today:

BERTIE Ahern has said he is “honoured” that he will today break Eamon de Valera’s record for the longest consecutive number of days as Taoiseach.

He will have been in the country’s top job for 3,705 days, one more than his illustrious predecessor who served for 3,704 days from December 1937 to February 1948.

Mr Ahern, who is currently on holidays in Kerry, acknowledged the significance of the event.

“It is indeed a landmark, and I am honoured to have been given the opportunity by the Irish people to serve as Taoiseach since 1997.”

However, he appeared anxious to reject any suggestions that his third term as Taoiseach would be a conservative one — a criticism which was often levelled at de Valera in his later years.

“What matters most to me is not just continuity but the opportunity to bring about change,” Mr Ahern said.

“In a single decade the Irish people have already achieved more than seemed possible. Peace in Northern Ireland and a strong economy that is providing opportunity for our people are testimony to that.”

He added his focus was firmly on the future and the opportunities for the country in the years ahead. However, he will find it almost impossible to beat the overall record held by de Valera, who spent a total of 5,616 days as Taoiseach in six separate Governments before moving on to become President in 1959. He also spent another 1,962 days as President of the Executive Council from 1932 to 1937 — a position abolished by the 1937 constitution.

Mr Ahern would have to stay in charge until November 13, 2012 to beat the overall record, which would mean winning a fourth general election. He has previously said that he will retire before his 60th birthday in September 2011, and that he has no interest in following de Valera’s path to Aras an Uachtarain.

“At that stage the Irish people would have enough of me,” he has said.

Both he and de Valera’s political careers have been bound up with the North in radically different ways. While the Fianna Fail founder affirmed the state’s claim to the North through Articles two and three of the 1937 Irish constitution, Mr Ahern led the campaign to have them removed to further the Good Friday Agreement.

However, he has been careful to link his approach on the peace process to de Valera’s, such as when he spoke at the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration in Bodenstown, Kildare two years ago.

“Like de Valera, and all my other Fianna Fail predecessors, I have tried to persuade the militant fringe of republicanism to follow our party’s peaceful and democratic Republican path,” Mr Ahern said then.

Last June, he was among hundreds of mourners at the funeral of Terry de Valera, the youngest son of Eamon de Valera. Although De Valera’s granddaughter Sile has stepped down, the family connection continues through Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Eamon O’Cuiv, who is De Valera’s grandson.

Congrats Bertie! We love you!!

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Gary Hicks, a friend and former work colleague, has cut his teeth in the Podiobook world with his first audio novel ‘Terra Incognita’. As part of the production, Diarmy was called upon to lend his voice to the cast of characters who enact the novel for the world to hear. Here’s the gist of the story:

Drawn together apparently by the hand of fate, Trent and Cole escape the oppressive totalitarian domed city that has nurtured them all their lives.

Outside they discover a world they could never have imagined. They are pursued by the city Militia, intent on returning them to the secretive entity that oversees every facet of the city.

They are joined by Floyd, who turns against the Militia; only to be captured once more and freed by those they would have considered most unlikely to help them.

The trio begin to understand the truth of their world and must decide for whom they will fight in the coming wars…

Gary also has a great website, designed naturally by Diarmy, but fundamentally built by Gary over the past couple of months. I’d highly recommend a peek at this fantastic sci-fi novel which is available at PodioBooks.com.

Naturally, you should also visit www.gary-hicks.com too!

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To continue the previous topic a bit, the O2 GPRS to EDGE migration has reached Ireland’s western shores. Most mobile users on Ireland’s best network would be unaware of this change, save for BlackBerry users who support EDGE natively (and spell it out for you too!)

So the iPhone is now clearly imminent. The change happened for me last night at about 2300hrs. I lost all connections and when signal returned after a few brief moments, and the Blackberry Curve proudly displayed the EDGE symbol along with a noticeably higher signal strength.

See what you can do

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On a ridiculous journey from Kerry to Dublin and on to Galway last Sunday, I noticed when I was in the Ballinasloe area of Galway that my Blackberry happily said it was now on the EDGE network from O2. I thought this was an anomaly, but then I thought about who was most likely getting the iPhone for Ireland - Telefonica’s operated O2. As I was driving at the time, I didn’t get the chance to check if there was any improvement in speed over GPRS.

However I as in Mount Bellew a few days later in North East Galway and tested the EDGE connection - but to my dismay it wasn’t faster or slower than GPRS. But this is significant. O2 has the best network coverage in Ireland at present (especially in rural areas). But O2 has one of the slowest networks in Ireland (not unlike AT&T then!). O2 recently launched their HSDPA broadband modem, but the coverage is only in urban centres, unlike 3 Ireland who have nationwide coverage almost. So for O2 to upgrade networks and run trials here already, iPhone looks set for the European September launch promised by Steve Jobs last July. So at least it’s not Vodafone!

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