Fionnán Sheahan: Headless chickens want Micheál Martin to duck the White House. This is why he can’t
Taoiseach's cautious approach has served him well during 15 years as Fianna Fáil leader, so he won’t abandon it now
Micheál Martin with Donald Trump at the Oval Office during the St Patrick's Day visit last year. Photo: GettyMicheál Martin is joining the 21st century. As the Jim Gavin presidential election campaign debacle fallout continues, Fianna Fáil is hiring a senior digital editor to drive online growth, create native campaigns and utilise data to put a strategy in place across numerous platforms. Party headquarters has even hired a headhunter to recruit the right candidate. The successful applicant will also preferably “understand politics”. Presumably, this means knowing to close a farm gate in a video and not landing your candidate in all sorts of trouble in a sensitive campaign.After 15 years as leader of Fianna Fáil, the jury is still out on Martin’s modernisation of the party. When he became leader, Martin says, there wasn’t even a database of members. Despite moving away from some outdated structures, there is still a touch of the old school about Fianna Fáil and the party has been reluctantly dragged along with modern causes. The campaigns on same-sex marriage and abortion saw the party following rather than leading, and the promotion of women in politics still seems to be treated as an idea that might catch on.
