School of Politics and International Relations

Professor Tim Bale, Fianna Fail’s long march back to power

14 January 2016

In 2012, Professor Tim Bale stood up at the Fianna Fail ard fheis in Dublin and preached the gospel according to David… David Cameron, that is – writes The Times. Professor Bale had come to Ireland with a Tory blueprint and he urged the Fianna Fail faithful to use it to chart their way back from the wilderness. A Fianna Fail annual conference is not a venue that you would have expected to hear favourable mention of the British Conservatives, but after the shock of the 2011 general election — in which the party lost 51 of its 71 seats — it was prepared to contemplate the most radical prescriptions to breathe life back into a once-dominant political force. “Professor Bale must be proud of his students today. Fianna Fail under Micheál Martin is following his Tory blueprint to the letter and playing the long game,” the article reads.
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