YOU MAY RECALL that before he was running for president – and going awfully close to winning – Séan Gallagher was a member of Fianna Fáil.

Indeed his links to the Soldiers of Destiny would ultimately be his undoing when the party was still politically toxic in the aftermath of its near wipeout at the general election.

But Gallagher cut a dashing figure as a member of the party’s youth wing, Ógra Fianna Fáil, if this programme for its ninth national youth conference in 1984 is anything to go by:

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Gallagher was one of three candidates from Connacht/Ulster seeking to get elected to the party’s Ard Comhairle.

Down in Munster there was another dashing young man looking to get on the party’s national executive.

He went by the name of Micheál Martin. Look at that handsome future Fianna Fáil leader:

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The conference itself looked like a right old shindig. It took place on 10 and 11 November 1984 in the Grand Hotel in Malahide, north Dublin.

But the real party was taking place on the Friday night before all the boring political stuff got under way with the Grove Hotel played host to a disco.

We can only imagine what Seán, Micheál and all the other Ógra Fianna Fáilers got up to there. Dancing and all sorts…

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Hat tip to Irish Election Literature 

Helicopter rides and cigars: Here’s what dinner with Charlie Haughey was like in 1987