Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If Deputy Higgins does not mind, I am speaking about Paddy Hogan. He was my predecessor in the Clare Labour Party. I think of Hogan as a practical man who provided good and responsible leadership in times of great hardship. He was not a reckless demagogue who misleads people with false promises of an El Dorado that simply cannot be achieved.

The proposers of the motion seek to cast themselves in the heroic mould of the tragic characters of Plunkett's Strumpet City. They rant and rail against the world in very general terms and against the Labour Party in particular. Their shrill voices and empty rhetoric is not only useless, however, it is dangerous.

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