Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

In a year packed with elections – two referendums and Local, European and Dáil elections – it’s hard to believe that a candidate who wasn’t elected and who finished eighth on first preferences in a five-seater, provided one of the main talking points of the political year in review.

But that was 2024, the year that celebrity broadcaster, influencer, diamond dealer and much more besides, Gráinne Seoige, entered the political fray – and flopped – in what turned out to be the Failed Political Experiment of the Year.

Despite a fawning Dublin media, which gave plenty of fulsome and uncritical coverage to the showbiz candidate, Seoige failed to connect with voters in Galway West in November’s General Election.

Seoige took the Political Naivety of the Year award, too, for an underwhelming campaign. It was top-heavy with (self-) promotional videos on social media that were no substitute for a door-knocking ground campaign, and pockmarked by mistakes, including a bizarre newspaper ad that seemingly attacked Galway’s cancer services which were the responsibility of a Fianna Fáil Minister.

User of the Year went to the Fianna Fáil’s strategists, who used Seoige’s obvious broadcasting skills and celebrity status to present the party as modern, and accommodating of strong, capable women in a cynical move that backfired spectacularly – with Seoige the (willing) collateral damage.

Whether the An Spidéal native wins next year’s Lazarus of the Year accolade depends on whether she is rehabilitated by FF leader Micheál Martin with a Taoiseach’s nomination to the Seanad this January, but this year’s winner was her party colleague, Michael John Crowe.

The former Mayor of Galway was unexpectedly unseated in June’s Local Election, after 20 years’ experience as a councillor, but bounced back in December to win Comeback of the Year. That was after he defeated the Blast from the Past of the Year, Val Hanley, in a Fianna Fáil co-option to Galway City Council to fill the seat vacated by party colleague, Galway West’s newest TD, John Connolly.

Connolly won the Persistence Pays award – he took Éamon Ó Cuív’s seat, despite Fianna Fáil head office’s clear preference for running mate Seoige; a rich reward for the Bearna man who contested unsuccessfully in the 2016 General Election when nobody else in Fianna Fáil was willing to step up to the plate.

Pictured: FF candidate Gráinne Seoige who was defeated in the General Election, picked up two awards from Bradley Bytes. She’s pictured here arriving at the count centre with party colleague, Mayor Peter Keane. PHOTO: BRIAN HARDING.