Edwin McGreal: Celebrity candidates reveal much about Irish politics

Simon Coveney must be very pleased with himself.

The Fine Gael Director of Elections for the European elections will undoubtedly be taking the plaudits for the ‘masterstroke’ in getting their two candidates across the line in Midlands North-West. Taking two of the five seats in the sprawling constituency is some achievement. 

Even more so is the fact that from once the first count was announced, there was no doubt that Fine Gael were going to take two seats. Their candidates Nina Carberry and Maria Walsh were in a very comfortable position, in second and fourth respectively, with Walsh over 14,000 votes ahead of fifth place Ciarán Mullooly and that gap never looked like being bridged. The only potential for a battle was for the fifth seat and it was with Mullooly and those below him. Carberry and Walsh could watch on confidently assured of victory. As it happens, Barry Cowen took the second seat with Walsh and Carberry in third and fourth.

Carberry ran a very unusual campaign, it is fair to say. The Meath woman was a spectacularly good champion horse jockey and, post-retirement from that most grueling of sports, graced our screens in Dancing with the Stars and Ireland’s Fittest Family where her pleasant yet driven personality would have endeared her to many.

Fine Gael saw an opportunity. In 2019, they won two of the four seats in Midlands North-West – Maria Walsh and Maireád McGuinness. Following McGuiness’s selection as an EU Commissioner, Louth Fine Gael county councillor Colm Markey was co-opted in her stead.

When Carberry put her name forward in March, Markey read the room and announced he would not be running, despite having previously indicating he would stand. But during the campaign it was hard to catch much of a glimpse of Carberry, unless her videos found their way onto your social media feed.

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan made the following pointed comment during the count when asked if Fine Gael being on course for two seats proves picking celebrity candidates is a successful strategy.

“Apparently it does,” he said. “And not only that, hiding a candidate during a campaign works if Nina Carberry gets elected – because I have never in my life met Nina Carberry,” he added.

Giving the amount of pre-elections hustings and debates that candidates get to, even in such a large constituency, that is quite the illustration. The Phoenix magazine observed that Fine Gael spent more money on Carberry’s social media posts than any other candidate.

“The impressive showing so far by jockey-turned-TV-celebrity Nina Carberry suggests the decision by Fine Gael to keep her off the national airwaves as much as possible while promoting the Midlands-North-West candidate through online promotion has paid off,” they pithily observed.

In the early days of the count at the TF Royal Theatre in Castlebar, Nina Carberry was a non-runner too. Outgoing MEP Maria Walsh – who was similarly plucked from a high-profile non-political background five years ago – was the face of the Fine Gael campaign on TV, radio and at the count, where candidates are frequently asked for interviews by local and national broadcast and print media in attendance.

Ms Carberry did turn up towards the end and looked uncomfortable when, following her election, she was quizzed by RTÉ’s Pat McGrath about her policy objectives in Europe. Perhaps the end justifies the means. Simon Coveney and co will definitely argue it does.

The fifth seat went to another celebrity candidate. Ciarán Mullooly was elected for the Independent Ireland party.

The former RTÉ Midlands Correspondent had the name recognition and, on the face of it, his ear to the ground given his former role with the national broadcaster. However, Mullooly was far from impressive when interviewed for RTÉ Prime Time giving a wishy-washy answer about ‘common-sense’ when asked what is he going to bring to Europe.

He expressed dissatisfaction at not being on the RTÉ Upfront debate for Midlands North-West. But it was a win-win for him. He was able to spin it in his favour as an example of what he was up against and based on his interview on Prime Time, I am not sure if the scrutiny of Katie Hannon would have worked out well for him.

Time will tell how all three get on in Europe but the rise of the celebrity candidates was clearly evident across all three Irish European constituencies. Cynthia Ni Murchú was elected in Ireland South. She is best known as a broadcaster and arguably best remembered for introducing Riverdance at the Eurovision in 1994.

Niall Boylan, who lost out for the last seat in Dublin, is another broadcaster.

Describing them as celebrities may be reductive but they polled well because they had a profile before politics.

But it is on another level in Midlands North West where Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan and Barry Cowen are outnumbered by celebrities.

Maybe it is more prevalent in European elections. Constituencies that are extremely large do tend to mitigate against people who are not very well known, politically or elsewhere. You can see why parties go for it, especially when voters tend to give it their approval.

The cult of the celebrity has been a factor in Irish politics for generations. We do not have to look too far in Mayo for examples of it.

Seán Flanagan was elected to Dáil Éireann in May of 1951. He had lifted Sam Maguire in September 1950 and, as a Fianna Fáil TD, would do likewise in September 1951.

Henry Kenny, a star of the 1936 Mayo All-Ireland winning team, was elected in 1954, with Fine Gael possibly seeing the merit in a high-profile footballer. Both men were very effective politicians too, it must be added.

Across the border in Galway, Mick Donnellan captained Galway to the 1925 All-Ireland and went onto have a high-profile political career. He was less coaxed into politics and more a case of him single-mindedly storming into it. He was the founder and leader of the farmers’ party Clann na Talmhan and a TD from 1943 to 1964 when he died suddenly at half-time in that year’s All-Ireland football final in which two of his sons were playing for Galway.

In Mayo, John O’Mahony and Alan Dillon are more recent examples. Both had the profile for their involvement with Mayo football to boost their election chances and went onto enjoy impressive Dáil careers, with Dillon’s rise since his election four years ago particularly meteoric.

The question is this – are party alickadoos looking at someone and thinking they have a lot to offer and that their profile is a useful means of getting them the platform their political ability merits? Or is it a zero-sum game, seeking to get people elected to bolster their overall number of TDs, MEPs etc and if they are any good, sure isn’t that a bonus?

Time will tell how Nina Carberry, Ciarán Mullooly et al get on in Europe. It does not receive the same scrutiny as the Dáil so they may have a greater opportunity to bed in over there or, as someone of a more cynical disposition might put it, hide in plain sight.