Lucinda Creighton’s principled stand against her own Government’s abortion Bill was widely seen as an act of rare political courage, even by some who disagreed with her position.
Some have suggested that not only was she sacrificing her job as Minister for Europe, but a promising future in politics.
But reading her speeches in the Dáil debate on abortion, one doesn’t get the impression that she’s done with politics just yet. In fact, she may just be getting warmed up.
Her article in the Irish Mail on Sunday was in a similar vein. Again, she referred to “group think”, a phrase which she said, appeared to have struck a “raw nerve” among certain of her colleauges.
Group think, she said “is a negative feature in society, in the media and in political life”.
She continued: “Increasingly we are all supposed to think and speak the same way. There is less and less room in this country for a diversity of opinion, for real and meaningful debate and for genuine analysis. We are all supposed to swim with the tide on every occasion.
“I consider this dangerous. I am certain that this is dangerous for our democracy.”
Specifically, she argued that the failure of Fine Gael to allow a conscience vote on abortion was “not a good thing for the democratic process in this State”.
She added: “Much of the commentary in the aftermath of Thursday’s vote confirmed to me that our media perpetuates the blind group think which prevailed and contributed to the economic collapse in this country. I listened to the Friday Panel on Today with Pat Kenny. The level of analysis or understanding of what is happening in our shambolic Parliamentary system was alarming.
“A commentator from the Irish Times seemed only capable of understanding the events of the week in terms of ‘strength’ ‘power’ and ‘crushing opponents’. To him is was just a numbers game. He was entirely uninterested in the substance of the disagreement, or the fact that an important viewpoint was ignored or ‘whipped into line’.
“He seemed to believe that the only issue at hand was the fact that ‘only five’ TDs had voted against the legislation and this was somehow a great victory for the Government, its senior figures and Fine Gael.
“This is a sad and shallow analysis, which ignores the fundamental questions of democracy which were raised throughout the last few weeks when elected Members of our Parliament were, in many instances, coerced and cajoled into voting for legislation they clearly considered to be faulty and against their better judgement.”
“In every other modern western democracy that I have studied, public representatives are not and would never be, forced to choose between their conscience and their party. That is worth considering and reflecting upon.
“This includes Australia, New Zeland, the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and many, many more.
“In my investigations I could not find any other democratic country on this planet that forces people to vote against their conscience. Ireland has the dubious distinction of standing alone in its denial of conscience. This is not something I am proud of. Nobody should be.”
She added: “Those ‘commentators’ who cheer the crushing of political opponents, and applaud the stifling of debate in Ireland, do no service to either good journalism or good politics. In fact they are complicit with the rot in a system which so desperately needs changing.
“Their anxiety to take quotes and spin from ‘well placed sources’ may make their contributions sound plausible and knowledgeable. In fact, they are missing the real story.”
