OUTGOING LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore wasn’t to know the full extent of the electoral bloodbath his party faced when he sat down with TheJournal.ie at our offices in central Dublin last week.
In fact, the Tánaiste was in bullish mood, predicting the party had a chance of two European seats and could do well locally given its councillors had never ever been found of being “in anyone’s pocket”.
Sitting, ironically, on the same floor that was Labour’s general election HQ in 2011, Gilmore responded “Yes, I will” when we asked if he would still be party leader in two years’ time.
He even said he intends to run for the Dáil again at the next election and today, as he announced his resignation, he confirmed plans to go again in the Dún Laoghaire constituency.
A source close to the Tánaiste today told this website that when the leadership handover is complete, Gilmore expects to be reshuffled out of Cabinet and return to the backbenches where he will continue his parliamentary work.
It will be a drastic change from that talk not so long ago of ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’ – an ambition he still held when he spoke to us last week.
Here’s the full video of Eamon Gilmore’s last in-depth interview before he announced his resignation:
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