Book description
In boom and in bust, Ireland has been led by Fianna F il. Showtime
gets behind the party's remarkable dominance of the political
landscape and leading political writer Pat Leahy, tells the gripping
story of how it won, kept and has used power since the mid-1990s.
Showtime explains how Fianna F il operated during the boom
years - from November 1994, when Bertie Ahern assumed leadership of a
battered party, expecting to become Taoiseach but instead finding
himself cast into opposition, to the day he relinquished the party
leadership on the brink of the bust. For a decade after it achieved
power in 1997, Fianna F il led the government during an unprecedented
economic boom and enjoyed riches beyond the wildest dreams of any
previous administration. Showtime reveals how government really
worked in these years: the favours, the grudges, the backroom deals,
the political strokes, the policy compromises and the choices that
have led the country to where it is today.
Showtime is politics in the raw: the exciting, enlightening
and sometimes disturbing story of a remarkable era that changed the
face of modern Ireland.
Pat Leahy is the political editor of the
Sunday Business Post
, and is a regular contributor to political discussions on radio and
television programmes.
Showtime
is his first book.
