A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
When writing, I tend to avoid clichés like the plague. Last week, I wrote about the Irish Presidential election campaign. Then, there were three candidates; now there are two. A week is a long time in politics.
The Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, promoted Jim Gavin to be the Fianna Fáil candidate. On paper, he looked great: a former military pilot, he coached Dublin to six All-Ireland Championship wins and was widely credited with pioneering the new rules that have reshaped Gaelic football. But then the rubber hit the road.
In an effort to broaden his appeal outside of urban Dublin, his team released a video of him on a farm, wearing white trousers and leaving gates open. In a campaign in which authenticity is currency, the video was ridiculed. A further series of campaign blunders followed, including the use of illegal drone footage for a candidate who, in his day job, is responsible for aviation rules and safety. A photograph of the candidate with the head of the armed forces had to be removed as it broke campaign protocol.
After the first debate, Gavin had fallen from bookies’ favourite to third place in a three-horse race. He was looking like a bad bet after only two weeks of the campaign.
The second debate was scheduled for last Sunday. On the Saturday, a newspaper reported that sixteen years ago, a tenant of Mr. Gavin had overpaid rent by €3,300 and sought repayment, which was refused. During the debate on Sunday, Gavin denied all knowledge, stressed it was at a time when he was under financial difficulties, and he would look into it. It transpired that the tenant, who is today a journalist and deputy editor of a national Sunday newspaper, had gone to considerable lengths at the time to retrieve the over payment, including issuing legal letters.
It is the cover-up that gets you. By Sunday night, Mr. Gavin had withdrawn from the campaign, too late for his name to be removed from the ballot paper.
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael and second government candidate, Heather Humphries, travelled to Belfast to promote her all-Ireland image. Coming from the border county of Monaghan, she has repeatedly claimed to know and understand the North. In the video accompanying her visit to Belfast, her campaign team included stock footage of Belfast City Hall for context, except the footage was actually of the Bundestag in Berlin. We had moved from the sublime to the ridiculous in one quick edit. An apology was issued and the video recut.
The third candidate, endorsed by Sinn Féin, Catherine Connolly, is ahead of Humphries in the polls. In a sign of the times, a video surfaced while out on the campaign trail, playing soccer and basketball with a group of kids, she was so skillful that online opponents claimed that it was AI-generated!! It wasn’t. Welcome to our world.
With the election date set for October 24th. With two weeks left to go and a reduced field, it is all to play for.
Have a great weekend,
