Ivana Bacik needs a revolutionary streak to save Labour

The decision to name Ivana Bacik as his successor is another act of desperation. Political oblivion is a real risk for a once-proud political force.

Bacik is untried and untried for such a frontline challenge that will require a near-miracle to bring Labor back into the mainstream. Her statements in the last few days give a hint that she has the necessary revolutionary zeal.

Her acceptance speech and subsequent media interviews were mundane and predictable. Does she have that mythical fire in her stomach to ignite a national movement without self-confidence and disorientation?

Her new role focuses on how she became the anointed. In conversation with Sarah McInerney on RTÉ’s driving timeshe was disappointingly coy about the Machiavellian moves that supplanted her predecessor.

She refused to speak when she learned of the conspiracy that presented her predecessor with a fait accompli from his Dáil colleagues. Quit or face public humiliation.

What was your involvement in the Labor TDs’ decision to tell Kelly the game was up? She insisted she would not comment on “so-called plots” – although behind-the-scenes insidiousness was crucial to the bloodshed.

“We have to keep going,” she insisted.

A genuine and direct acceptance of the party’s execution of its party leader – and how it came to replace him – may have signaled that it might indeed be a pattern breaker to hit the moment.

She then highlighted a fairly obvious troika of concerns central to the next election. Hospital waiting lists, child care costs and the housing shortage are some of our most persistent problems.

It’s early days, but the new leader offered little ingenuity or insight to meet challenges without easy answers.

Meanwhile, soundings also suggest the new leader may not be averse to returning to government should the numbers start to pile in Labour’s favour.

Given that Sinn Féin has ‘stolen’ many of its traditional seats in the eyes of Labor veterans, why even consider empowering Mary Lou McDonald in a future government?

Allowing the gloss to be stripped away from Sinn Féin promises might be a better longer-term tactic. The party’s all-for-all approach will not survive the reality of harsh, unpopular decisions once it comes to power.

To be fair, Ivana Bacik, she has an almost impossible task. Labour’s biggest problem is that if the party were no longer represented in the Dáil, it would be hard to miss on hard political terms.

Labor is of course associated with nostalgia. Perhaps only in hindsight can we see how some of his iconic names had such an impact on our national life. Dick Spring, Brendan Howlin, Brendan Corish, William Norton, and underdogs from Conor Cruise O’Brien to Noel Browne have all plowed a significant furrow.

As has been well documented, the place Labor has traditionally occupied has been supplanted, not only by Sinn Féin but also by a plethora of more recognizable left-of-centre TDs.

The party may have long reflected a sort of soft-centred socialism – never too ideological and usually soft-spoken – to play a role in governments of all stripes.

But these days, there’s a harder edge.

The softer approach is no longer winning seats, especially in economically and socially disadvantaged communities.

Bacik is not on the right track yet and time is not on their side. So far she has been relatively spoiled within the confines of interest groups, Trinity College and the Seanad.

To succeed in the task ahead, she must reinvent herself, have a message that touches hearts and emerge as someone with insatiable passion to usher in a new era for Labour.

Above all, she needs to convince the public that she is now party leader because of a driving sense of destiny. And that there’s more to her than she’s not Alan Kelly.