Tony Gregory

Tony Gregory ROBBIE GILLIGAN

First published 2011 by The O’Brien Press Ltd, 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland.

Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777 E-mail: books@obrien.ie Website: www.obrien.ie ISBN: 978-1-84717-226-6 Copyright for text © Robbie Gilligan 2011 Copyright for typesetting, layout, editing, design © The O’Brien Press Ltd Cover photos: (front) Tony O’Shea (back) Derek Speirs.

While every attempt has been made to contact copyright holders of photographs, if any infringement has occurred the publisher requests the holder of such copyright to contact them.

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DEDICATION To Tony Gregory’s supporters

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been a great privilege and challenge to write this book about Tony Gregory. I am very grateful to the many people who have supported me in the project. Noel Gregory has always been very supportive and exceptionally generous with his time, his memories and his family records. I first came to know Fergus McCabe when I was seventeen or so as a volunteer in the Belvedere Youth Club where we both made our first connection to the north inner city. Fergus has been a friend and inspiration ever since. In this project, he has been most helpful, ever willing to delve into his memory on this detail or that. Many other people were very generous also, with time, recollections, leads and access to material: Mick Rafferty who shared good memories and stories, Maureen O’Sullivan who drew on her political association and personal friendship with Tony over all his political career, Annette Dolan, his partner in the later years, who went to a lot of trouble to help me track down various material. There were many people with strong links to the inner city as natives or ‘blow ins’, or who had an association with Tony through friendship, political work, or some combination who kindly agreed to answer my questions or be interviewed – Philip Boyd, Christy Burke, Pat Carthy, Liz Doyle, John Farrelly, Pauline Kane, Joe Kelly, Seanie Lambe, John Lynch, Marie Metcalfe, David Norris, Jim Sheridan, Derek Speirs, Valerie Smith and Pádraig Yeates. Many of my colleagues in Trinity College showed interest in the project and offered helpful insights or comment in the course of my work on the book. Professor Michael Gallagher, Department of Political Science, was most generous, as always, in allowing

me tap his encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish politics to help me track down or check certain more esoteric information. Other colleagues who offered helpful comments or insights include Professor Eunan O’Halpin, School of Histories and Humanities, and colleagues in my own school, the School of Social Work and Social Policy: Dr Shane Butler, Dr Barry Cullen, Dr Philip Curry, Maeve Foreman, Gloria Kirwan and Dr Eoin O’Sullivan.

I am most grateful to the Dublin City Archive who helped me in various ways. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Ide Ní Laoghaire and Michael O’Brien whose good advice and faith in the project were very important.

Most of all, I must thank my wife Mary Quinn, and our three daughters, Aoife, Sinead and Orla, for their patience and support throughout a project that ate up huge amounts of spare time in an already busy life.

I thank everybody who helped me with the researching and the writing of the book. They have helped make it a better work. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own responsibility.

Robbie Gilligan 2011

CONTENTS PART I FROM THE CRADLE TO THE DEAL CHAPTER 1 TONY’S EARLY LIFE

11

CHAPTER 2 FROM SINN FÉIN TO COMMUNITY POLITICS

33

CHAPTER 3 FROM THE COUNCIL TO THE DÁIL

56

CHAPTER 4 NEGOTIATING THE DEAL

73

PART II AN INDEPENDENT VOICE CHAPTER 5 ‘BRAND TONY’

106

CHAPTER 6 TACKLING DRUGS AND CRIME

119

CHAPTER 7 OTHER ISSUES

140

CHAPTER 8 THE PRIVATE SIDE

176

CHAPTER 9 MESSENGER OF THE PEOPLE

185

APPENDIX 1 THE GREGORY DEAL

196

APPENDIX 2 TONY’S NOTES FOR HIS LAST DÁIL SPEECH

224

FOOTNOTES

227

INDEX

239

Chapter 5

‘Brand Tony’

L

ooking back over Tony’s political career, the Gregory Deal stands out as the high point. But, in fact, there are many other feats that also deserve recognition. Tony won a seat in eight of the nine Dáil elections in which he stood – and even in the

one he lost, his first, he did very respectably. He also won a Council seat in every Council election in which he stood, and was the councillor elected with the most votes nationally in the 1991 local elections (among over two thousand councillors).

But perhaps his greatest feat was managing to operate on both the local and the national stages for twenty-seven years as an Independent TD, one of longest-serving Independents ever in the Dáil. The scholarship boy grew up to have a work ethic, ability and sharp grasp of detail that carried the day, not just in his education, but also in politics. His political message remained constant: fair treatment for the inner city and other groups that had long been neglected.

His election strategy remained meticulous through all the years, including thorough canvassing and relentless attention to media opportunities which gave him the potential to reach voters beyond the inner-city flats complexes. It also meant careful minding of ‘brand Tony’ – not that Tony would ever have used the phrase, but he certainly understood the point. In other words, he remained true to his core principles in everything he did and in everything he said. ‘Brand Tony’ was deeply identified with the inner city, but his political skill meant he was also quietly hoovering up substantial 106

‘BRAND TONY’ swathes of votes in the other parts of his constituency.

He won the affection of Dubliners beyond the inner city and across the political spectrum, even from people with quite different political instincts who recognised and respected his fundamental decency and integrity. Even his opponents admired, or, more perhaps, envied, his gutsy articulation of the causes he stood for. And it wasn’t just the ‘jackeens’ – even the ‘culchies’ grew to have a grudging respect for this Dub with attitude. His political achievements were the Deal, his continuous election success, his various innovations, and his eventual status as a Dublin icon, up there with Ronnie Drew and Noel Purcell.

Another attractive point about Tony was that there was no need to cringe when listening to him hold forth on some point or other. He had a great command of the two official languages. His English was characterised by careful expression and proper pronunciation, all bathed in an unmistakeable and reassuringly authentic Dublin twang. His Irish would pass the critical scrutiny of even the most ardent Gaeilgeoir.

Being an Independent TD may give certain freedoms, but these come at a price. In an aside in a radio interview with John Bowman, around the time of the vote on his Private Member’s Wildlife Bill, he observed that, unlike politicians in political parties, he did not have the ‘luxury’ of a Whip system.While the Whip restricts freedom and forces party members to vote in the way ordained by the party leadership, it also, in return, gives party politicians ‘cover’ in relation to many issues. They do not have to make their own decisions in each case and, even more importantly, to justify their viewpoint or their vote. Mainstream politicians can actually hide behind the Whip, avoiding the intellectual effort involved in making up their own mind. But Independents have to make do on their own.Tony, however, was amply equipped for the intellectual demands of assessing every scenario and formulating his response.

On every issue,Tony had to make up his own mind. On every issue,Tony 107

TONY GREGORY had to face the media and answer their questions. He had to decide what to say every time a microphone was stuck in his face. And he had to do this without the infrastructure of support that party politicians have grown to expect and rely on. He had no media handlers, no programme managers, no researchers in his party offices, no party HQ and no press office filtering demands or issuing instructions and guidance. He could consult supporters, but in the end he had to formulate his response, decide his position, argue his case himself. When there was a speech to be written, a press release to be drafted, it was Tony himself who did the work. He often prepared for interviews or other media outings late into the night. Reading back over his speeches and his articles, and knowing that he was the sole author, underlines his remarkable ability, and I have quoted extensively from his own words in this book, drawing on his speeches, interviews and articles as his own voice gives a strong, unique and contemporaneous feel for Tony, the politician. He had a great gift for expressing his views with clarity and economy and this shines through in all of what he had to say. Tony treated words with great respect – they each had value and were not to be wasted.

The great skill in the delivery of a speech, however, is undoubtedly the ability to make what is fully prepared look ‘off the cuff ’. Tony’s partner in later life, Annette Dolan, says that his speeches and contributions were all honed in advance (see Appendix 2). He took his input into debates seriously and he did his homework in order to achieve the highest quality of content and delivery. He crafted his speeches carefully and delivered them well.Tony quickly grasped the fundamentals of political communication. His message was consistent and he took every opportunity to get it across. He was disciplined and methodical, thorough and highly organised. He paid attention to every detail. Nothing was left to chance. Still, public speaking or addressing a crowd at public events did not necessarily come easily to him; Pat Carthy recalls that even though he was an experienced speaker, he never overcame those nerves just before the performance.

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‘BRAND TONY’ Media coverage was like oxygen for Tony politically. This is true for all politicians, but especially for Independents who lack a party machine and a party brand. The key point about Tony and the media was that he had the skills and capacity to get the most out of any opportunity that presented itself. He had the intelligence and articulacy to respond effectively, to see and make the relevant points. He may have mellowed slightly over the years in how he said what he said, but essentially the message remained the same.

And he was always a master at being clear about what he wanted to say.

It helped that he had been a teacher – standing in front of classrooms full of students gradually teaches you to see what works in terms of getting the attention of your audience and getting your points across. It is no accident that politicians have often been teachers – teaching helps to sharpen the skills of communication (and, of course, the work schedule leaves space for politics).

A few on the inside may have known that Tony’s command of the media interview was the result of a lot of preparation and apprehension in advance, but in front of a microphone he spoke confidently, always to the point, always in a way that brought conviction and clarity to bear on the issue. He spoke to the question with honesty and economy. Each media performance left people clear where Tony stood and reminded them why they liked his approach. It also re-emphasised how he was different to other politicians who might have been less clear and direct in what they had to say. His approach might be said to have been characterised by the three Cs: clarity, conviction and consistency. Tony was refreshingly direct and ‘fudge-free’.

As became clear over his long career, Tony was no parish pump politician. He certainly minded his own political backyard, but he also spoke out on many issues well beyond his constituency remit. His ability to take positions and make speeches on a wide range of issues was remarkable for an Independent.

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