Bertie’s appointment of various party hacks to the Seanad yesterday has drawn a surprising amount of criticism. Face it, folks; the constitution gives the Taoiseach of the day total discretion to appoint 11 of the 60 senators, with no accountability to anyone and no criteria needing to be fulfilled. He did it because he could and because he has every right to do so, just like every other Taoiseach in the 70 years that Bunreacht na hÉireann has been in force.
I discovered a few years ago that Dev took this idea from the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, which would have created a Home Rule parliament in “Southern Ireland” to match what eventually became known as Stormont in the North. As well as the House of Commons of Southern Ireland (aka the Second Dáil) it had a Senate including elected representatives of local councils and precisely eleven members appointed by the Lord Lieutenant. It resembles the Seanad of de Valera’s constitution much more than either resembles the Irish Free State’s Senate, which was a peculiarly selected body (at one point 19 of its 60 members were chosen by a nationwide ballot of all voters over 30, ranking 76 candidates by STV).
Bertie’s actions yesterday are entirely consonant with the constitution, especially in the context that the last local elections left FF and its coalition partners unusually weak for the 43 seats elected by councillors. It’s a lousy system with lousy rules, but there is no point in criticising Bertie for operating the system as it was designed to be operated unless you have a better alternative.
Actually ‘wild hair’ is a correct expression for a ‘wild notion’ or ‘silly impulse’ or ‘foolish project’ or such. It’s not meant to be taken literally, though there might be a sort of pun in ‘chasing a wild hair through’.
‘Gloaming’ might have suggested the wrong color of light, but there’s nothing wrong with using a noun as a modifier, as in ‘dawn light’ or ‘morning light’.