Dessie Can Do It, part one: the birth of a new political force

Today Hugh and Pat embark on a deep dive into the history of a political party that, despite its small size, had an enormous and lasting impact on Ireland.

Born of the dire economic and political realities of 1980s Ireland, the Progressive Democrats, or PDs, spent half of their 23-year existence in power despite never having more than a handful of TDs - and sometimes far fewer. Under successive leaders Des O'Malley, Mary Harney and Michael McDowell, the party used that power to fight for lower taxes and economic liberalisation, reshaping the Irish political landscape along the way. But despite their outsized impact, the PDs could not survive.

In the first of three episodes Pat traces the birth of the party to the misery of mid-80s Ireland, the enmity between Fianna Fail leader Charles Haughey and prickly, clever Des O'Malley, a natural leader and a Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick. 

In a controversy emblematic of 1980s Ireland, O’Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil over the issue of contraception, ridding Haughey of a problem - or so he thought. But what followed was the emergence of a new political force that would threaten Ireland's sclerotic two-and-a-half party system.

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