World of Politics with Harry McGee

The late John Cunningham, former editor of the Connacht Tribune, probably taught me more than anyone else about the intricacy of Irish politics.

The only election I covered for The Connacht Tribune before moving on, was the 1989 one, where Bobby Molloy topped the poll. The other TDs elected were Frank Fahey, Michael D Higgins, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and Pádraic McCormack. And I was out with John in Leisureland watching the count.

We spent an inordinate amount of time going around to those doing the tallying to get the intel on where the five seats would land. He could tell me from early morning that Molloy (who had left Fianna Fáil three years earlier for the Progressive Democrats) would head the poll.

Later, he pointed to the stacks of votes of various sizes for each candidate. “That’s where the fate of all these guys is decided,” he said. “Those neatly stacked bundles of 50.”

The neatly stacked bundles of 50; it was an early lesson from him that politics is a cruel game.

And it is tough. You cannot but feel sorry for Anne Rabbitte who worked extraordinarily hard and fought her corner ferociously for those with disabilities, only to find herself being squeezed out in Galway East.

Or for Seán Kyne who worked really hard to win his Dáil seat back only to find himself on the wrong side of the thick red line that separated the elected, and non-elected.

Even for a new candidate like Gráinne Seoige, it was about learning politics the hard way. Fianna Fáil probably saw her and Alison Comyn in Louth as good options on the back of Cynthia Ní Mhurchú’s success in Europe.

But a Dáil election is a horse of a different colour. Flash in the pan success is a rarity. It’s more about graft and grassroots and building up support and momentum.

Seoige probably came into the reckoning too late and her ‘celebrity’ – ironically enough – was probably more of a hindrance than a help. She made one or two mistakes during the campaign – understandable for a person new to politics. She has to decide now if she will recommit and give it the time that can reap a return in the long-term.

Pictured: Bundles of 50…votes counted for Galway East. Photo: Jacinta Fahy.