MICHAEL D HIGGINS attending a Hawaiian-themed barbecue at the Labour Party think-in was not on the bingo card for this year. 

The former president entered the room at the Galway Bay Hotel with his wife Sabina and seemed unfazed by the Hawaiian garlands laid over each chair, the fake parrots dotted around the room and the biblical rain beating against the window outside.

On the same day, there was much talk about his successor Catherine Connolly, and how she can look forward to a courtesy call to Aras an Uachtaráin by US President Donald Trump this month. 

Higgins managed to avoid Trump in office, but didn’t hold back his views on the man and his politics over the years. Pressure is on Connolly by those who backed her candidacy, including Labour leader Ivana Bacik, to convey her views to the US president. 

While the former president did not speak to the media at the Labour dinner, one Labour member reported there was a conversation with Higgins about Trump which centred around Trump’s use of gold paint for his tacky re-decoration of the Oval Office.

Michael D Higgins arriving with his wife Sabina at the Labout think-in in Galway yesterday. Labour Party Labour Party

“I have to say it’s the first time I’ve ever spoken at a Hawaiian-themed event,” Labour leader Ivana Bacik said, before turning to the special guests and expressing her utmost appreciation for their work and commitment over the years. 

The evening was very much about honouring veterans of the party, who received honours on the night, with some regaling stories of the good old days when Labour was flying high.

Labour languishing on 3% in the polls 

But now, it is a very different time. 

Labour is languishing at 3% in the opinion polls, with the Social Democrats on 10%, according to the latest Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll.

Both parties hate to be questioned about what the difference is between the two parties (this reporter was once booed at a Social Democrats press event for asking just that). 

But once again, Bacik faced those questions on Thursday. 

“Our distinctive identity as a party has always been about delivering change, about actually delivering change — not content to sit on the sidelines, not content to stay in opposition forever, but about getting in there and making a difference in our communities,” she replied. 

It was a sentiment echoed by Labour members The Journal spoke to over the two-day event. 

No one seemed overly concerned about the rise of the Social Democrats, calling them the “flavour of the month”.

One TD asked: “Would they actually go into government? I don’t think so?” 

This TD said the Labour Party wants to enter into government and knows the highs and the lows of what that entails. They questioned whether the Social Democrats would take the risk of entering into government as the smaller party.

Labour knows all too well what damage it can cause to a party, having never really recovered from the austerity years when Labour was in government with Fine Gael. 

Bacik was asked about the politeness between her and Taoiseach Micheál Martin at times, and whether her elbows were sharp enough.

In comparison, Social Democrats Holly Cairns regularly finds herself in tetchy exchanges with the Taoiseach. 

“I think our elbows are always sufficiently sharp. We’ve always been about constructive politics. I don’t believe in, and my colleagues don’t either, we don’t believe in simply criticising for the sake of it, simply trying to score political points.

“We’re too serious about our politics for that. We believe in trying to make change for people, actually delivering on change. We’re a party that has a proud record of delivery, and that again marks us out from other parties,” said Bacik.

Similar to the Fianna Fáil leader, Bacik doesn’t appear to have much time for polls. 

She said they consistently underestimate her party.

“What we’ve seen in successive elections since I’ve become leader has been Labour outperforming polls and bringing forward new, hardworking, and highly committed public representatives,” she said.

Asked specifically if she was worried about the Social Democrats, Bacik said Labour was “in it for the long haul”.

She pointed to an increase in party membership, with people of all ages interested in joining the party.

Bacik also said she hopes to achieve an increased mandate in the next election. It’s a steep hill to climb with those recent poll numbers.

But the next election is some way off, which is why the party has gone down the road promising big-ticket items in their alternative budget, with the full realisation that they will never have to deliver upon them.

Labour’s Ged Nash pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the party’s think-in by saying his party would introduce a €100 “grocery gift voucher” per child for those in receipt of Child Benefit. A very costly promise.

Let’s revisit that promise if and when the party is on the precipice of entering into government again before 2030.