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The Candidate
The Explainer
16 Apr 2026
Fianna Fáil Always Chickens Out
00:00

The fuel protests may be over but the fallout inside Fianna Fáil is only getting started. Young TDs are issuing statements about the need for radical change. Malcolm Byrne is on television saying Micheál Martin is a good Taoiseach but a bad party leader. There was a four-hour marathon meeting on Monday. Yet nobody is actually willing to do anything about it. A lot of grumbling and then walking back down the hill.


Christine Bohan, Jane Matthews, Christina Finn and Rónán Duffy ask why Fianna Fáil keeps flirting with a heave it never has the nerve to follow through on, and whether the party has managed to a national crisis into a party crisis.


Also: If some lads with tractors can cause such chaos, what happens when the EU presidency rolls around in July?