"To be honest, I am a little confused as to what ‘joint stewardship’ actually means." - Pat Rabbitte
I can’t decide if I should approve his humility or be alarmed by his lack of knowledge. “Joint-Stewardship” may yet enter our political lexicon and be as hotly debated (and still as undefined) as “decommissioning.”
Pat Rabbitte always put me in mind of the little man on the make. The thought of him and Enda Kenny as Tánaiste and Taoiseach, respectively, fills me with nausea and foreboding. Rabbitte said, “By next year Fianna Fail will have been in power for almost 20 years unbroken, with only a brief two-year interregnum.” He doesn’t seem to grasp that those “20 years unbroken, with only a brief two-year interregnum” have been the most successful years in the history of the Republic of Ireland. Long may they continue – and long may he and Kenny stay in the margins where the only political harm the two dolts can do is rhetorical and not actual.
Well done on nabbing a party leader, by the way. Asking him about the “heated exchanges with the Ceann Comhairle” and 28th amendment issues shows that you had your Blog readers’ in mind when composing the questions, as they were both lively thread topics on United Irelander.
P.S. Pat, if you read this, do us all a favour: retire.
Well done UI!! Top man!
Well done UI, you seem to have a way of extracting interesting info out of people. I like Pat's word association!
Another example is:
I have always opposed the illegal war in Iraq. The Labour Party has been to the fore in anti-war protests over the past number of years, led by Party President Michael D Higgins. We were convinced that the Allied occupation of Iraq would lead to chaos in the region. That has been borne out. It has also set an alarming precedent for international relations that has led to a diminution of the United Nations and the corruption of international law.
The most sense I've heard Pat make in years!
Dubliner, I'm not a huge fan of Labour, particularly when they're jumping into bed with right-wing parties, but FF have had their day. The points Pat makes re people not being able to afford homes and dreadful conditions in A&E departments are quite right. We have a great economy, it's time to focus on our society. Issues of social justice and equality will be better dealt with by Labour in my view. Having said so, with FG in the mix you wouldn't know what will happen. I must admit to being one of those who doesn't know how he'll vote yet.
I disagree JG. The A+E crisis in confined only to a few hospitals. It's great in Kilkenny for example. FF have not had their day. FG has never failed to amaze by quite how disastrous they have been in govt.
No mention of a healthcare system free at the point of delivery, an education system free for all who wish to take advantage of it.
No mention of a united Ireland, other than a misrepresentation of Connolly's views (who was, of course, a participant in armed uprising).
Middle of the road.
Not socialist, not sufficiently different from the rest to promise anything to those who want a new, fairer, Ireland.
Interestingly, no mention of his involvement in the ORM.
Was Pat not a senior member of the Workers party/official ira when the printing press was found in premises belonging to the 'organisation' in Dublin.
I can't remember if it was Punts or Sterling the were counterfeiting at the time, they did progress to 'superdollars' thereafter.
What is Pat's paramilitary past ?
Great interview, UI,
Personally I can't stand the man and will not vote Labour as long as he and his left-wing, stickie cabal run the party. His sanctamonious hectoring is bad enough but he seems to be obsessed with his own personal hatred of FF and his former party's (I wonder where they put THEIR guns?) hatred of SF.
3. Mayo football. 55 years since our last All-Ireland. Its time that changed.
Top man!! 
Pat is merely less bland than some of his counterparts...
Don't know about that, he's pretty bland.
A question about his "revolutionary" days would have been interesting.
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