Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— village November - December 2009
Declan Ganley
ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES
PHOTO: PHOTOCALL IRELAND
‘ Ganley?’ is a question that
perplexed both voter and pundit alike over
the last eighteen months.
Village attempted to beam some light on
the actions that make up the man, in previ-
ous issues. But there is little reason to revisit
the controversial career of one of the most
divisive of Irish politicians.
Instead, Village opted to put the above
question to those who knew him, worked
with him or campaigned against him. There
was universal agreement on one thing: Ego
drove Declan Ganley.
Abandoning the Libertas think-tank to
form Libertas, the Pan-European party, was
seen by one former Libertas insider as the act
of hubris that led to its ruination. “There was
a Napoleon complex, a messianic belief to an
almost farcical degree”, the Libertas source,
who asked not to be named, said. This self-
belief may have worked well in business but
it led to overreach in politics.
A fellow former Libertas worker dis-
missed the Napoleon analogy in favour of
“Charlemagne.” But he was equally dismiss-
ive of the idea of creating that contradiction
in terms, a pan-European nationalist party.
“It was the stupidest thing that anyone in poli-
tics has ever done, fuelled by ego”, he said, also
asking not to be named.
The former Libertas official speculated that
Ganley had made all the money he needed. He
swam with the Big Fish in the US. Through
speaking at think-tanks in the States, he had
got a taste of politics and apparently liked it.
“He wanted to be loved”, he said, adding
that Ganley was deeply impressed by some of
the wealthy, aristocratic, French politicians.
North-west Labour party candidate Susan
O’ Keeffe, who – like Ganley - failed in the
recent European Elections, says she believes
he was consumed by a lust for power: “He is
motivated by power. And I believe he believes
he is always right”, she said. And there was an
unbending and unyielding quality to him. “He
was right and to hell with you – ever so politely
most of the time”, she added.
Both Libertas sources agreed that things
got tougher when Ganley re-emerged for
Lisbon II. The Celtic Tiger worship of the entre-
preneur had waned. And as Susan O’ Keeffe
said his clever Peter Pan spin became thin. “He
was a triumph of style over substance”, she
said, while admitting that the media always
pay more attention to the “colourful charac-
ter”. She admitted that he stood out in a John
O’Donoghue ridden wilderness.
But the man of mystery can very easily be
the object of suspicion.
So how heartfelt were his religious views?
Some saw his alliance with the ‘God Squad’ as a
cynical ploy for the troops on the ground as the
young Trinity men, who staffed the Brussels and
Dublin offices, were unlikely to wear out their
fine leather banging on dark Buncrana doors. A
government official said he saw an American-
style strategy in the North-west campaign, with
prayer meetings prior to political debate. These
meetings combined with the hardball tactics on
abortion were evocative of the Republicans in
the American South. While one of the Libertas
insiders was sceptical about the depth of
Ganley’s religious convictions, Independent
MEP Marian Harkin was in no doubt about the
conviction the religious political grouping held
about Ganley. “To them he was the saviour. He
was the man. He brought hope. They worked
for Ganley in a way I never saw them work for
Dana” [for whose former seat he was in effect
fighting], she said, adding that he was idolised.
She herself did know what Ganley’s religious
view, adding that they “seemed to be some sort
of pro-life mixture that is hard to describe.” She
said the hardball tactics on abortion would have
shocked her more if she had not already been
attacked by these people when campaigning for
Dana. But what really shocked her was Ganley’s
capacity for lying. “I shouldn’t be shocked, but
people believe what they hear. The bigger the lie,
the more they seem to believe you”. She went
on to express frustration at her perception that
he was often just plucking figures out of the air
and ventilating comments with no relevance
or connection. “It was maddening”, Harkin
said, the result was that she was always on the
back foot and found it difficult to get her own
message across.
In the end what sticks out is not so much
that the Libertas project failed, as that it got
so far.
“What really
shocked her was
Ganley’s capacity
for lying”
There was little substance to
Declan Ganley’s messianic
political vision - a pan-European
nationalist party; or his US-style
political strategy.
k e v i n b a r r i n g t o n
Declan and Dick do DJ
village_oct_09.indd 18 27/10/2009 15:37:52
