Irish political life is the lesser this week following the untimely death of former finance minister Brian Lenihan. Lenihan, who was at the very center of the storm when the Irish economy teetered on the precipice back in 2008, was an especially capable politician, though one who, it could be said, was as unlucky in political life as he was in terms of his health.
His death, at age 52, resulted from Pancreatic Cancer. His father, Brian Sr., who held a number of ministerial portfolios and ran unsuccessfully for the Irish presidency, died just short of his 65 birthday in 1995, six years after undergoing a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic.
In another time and circumstance, Lenihan could have been taoiseach. He certainly had the ability and the personality and his family was as steeped in Fianna Fáil politics to a degree that was virtually unmatched, even in a political culture that has long fostered generational family ties to the political life.
He followed his father into politics despite his legal training and his ascent was as certain as it was rapid. It was Lenihan's decision to provide a government guarantee to Ireland's collapsing banks that will be most associated with his political legacy, and although this would prove a hugely unpopular one with many voters it is important to note that the current government is maintaining this policy and that Lenihan himself was returned to the Dáil by voters in the general election earlier this year, even as his party suffered an unprecedented drubbing at the polls.
Lenihan was, indeed, the only Fianna Fáil TD in Dublin at the time of his passing. Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
