“IT’S FALLING TO bits.”
Prospective TDs find out quickly on the campaign trail that all politics is indeed local, often exceptionally so.
When Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan was canvassing for votes at near St. Patrick’s Cathedral, one of the issues raised was a Sacred Heart statue that hadn’t been properly cleaned in years.
The statue stands proudly in the middle of the small cluster of houses at Cathedral Lane in Dublin’s south inner city.
It’s encased in sunlight-faded perspex that’s drilled into the ground and could do with a lick of paint.
It had been put there about 33 years ago and Mary, a local woman whose house is also referred to as the Sacred Heart, says her late husband Bernard had tended to it before he passed away.
The statue was put there by the local community, so it’s not the responsibility of Dublin City Council. It was claimed that the new hotel overlooking the housing estate had suggesting helping out with the statue but nothing came to pass.
“We’ll definitely see what we can do,” Mary Lou McDonald says to the women who are happily chatting to the Sinn Féin leader.
They all assure Boylan that she’ll have their votes in the upcoming Dublin Bay South by-election but it’s not a huge surprise as several say they have a connection to the party.
McDonald’s attendance at the canvass is evidence of the emphasis the party is placing on next week’s vote and she is sure to tell everyone exactly when it’s happening.
“Thursday the 8th, this day week actually, every single vote counts,” McDonald tells everyone within earshot.
Cathedral Lane is at the edge of the constituency, with the Liberties across the road part of the neighbouring Dublin South Central and the majority of votes the suburbs further south.
With Sinn Féin leading in national polls, DBS would probably be low on the party’s wishlist of by-elections. A constituency-specific opinion poll during the week put Boylan trailing behind Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan and Labour’s Ivana Bacik.
McDonald laughs when it’s put to her that they’d rather be fighting for a seat elsewhere.
She describes it as a “very specific constituency” and half-jokingly adds that the party has a “David and Goliath” fight on its hands.
As for whether the by-election is a chance to test whether it can make a breakthrough in more middle-class areas, McDonald says Sinn Féin is “a big party now” and draws support from across various spectrums.
We have a much wider base, not just in in class terms, but also in geographical and regional terms, so of course we want to talk to everyone. Ultimately we welcome support from all quarters but we are a party that is progressive if those are your values.
With the Fine Gael candidate going on record to ask voters to transfer to government parties and Green Party candidate Claire Byrne seeking transfers to Bacik, does Sinn Féin need some help from other quarters?
Perhaps from the left-wing parties that benefitted from big Sinn Féin surpluses in the last general election?
“I think it’s very important that any party or candidate that’s running on a ticket of change has to be true to that. So I very much hope that you will see that kind of progressive pattern,” the Sinn Féin leader says.
As well as McDonald, Boylan is joined on the canvass by the party’s sitting TD in the area Chris Andrews.
Andrews is hit up for a range of requests including tree trimming and broken footpaths but the the main problem is the nearby ‘Cabbage Gardens’ green, which several locals say is overrun with drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.
Andrews says there’s soon to be a new pitch there which should make it more popular while driving away people loitering about.
Boylan points to the historic gravestones in the Cabbage Gardens which she says evokes memories of her childhood.
The high-profile Senator and former MEP lived nearby as a child before moving elsewhere in the city and also out to Tallaght.
Her selection as a candidate in DBS was somewhat of a surprise given that she’d be more active out in the west of Dublin. She admits that her run came about only after she was approached by Andrews and the local Cumman.
She tells The Journal that she isn’t bothered by the recent poll that puts her at a double-digit disadvantage to both Geoghegan and Bacik.
It was a small sample size. I mean it’s one of those constituencies, it is a Fine Gael seat, it is theirs to lose but it’s a very divided constituency as well. You have very, very wealthy areas and then you have areas that are very working class. What we’re saying to our voters is, come out on the day, a by-election is an opportunity to send a message. I wouldn’t be fazed too much by the poll.
Sinn Féin’s big pitch in the by-election is housing but it’s not top of the agenda for most of the people canvassed here.
The government had earlier announced plans to reform the rent pressure zone scheme to instead cap rent rises in line with inflation.
Boylan says the plan is “too late”.
Rents are so high now we actually need to have rent reductions or rent freezes. Five times Sinn Féin brought forward legislation calling for rental to be linked to inflation, five times Fine Gael voted against it. So now they’re bringing it in at a time when inflation is starting to rise again.
Bacik’s strong polling performance was not a surprise, with many pointing out that the location and candidate were both right for Labour to mount a significant and perhaps much-needed challenge.
Bacik’s party leader claimed at Labour’s DBS launch that Fine Gael and Sinn Féin wanted to present the race and the wider political landscape as a “a dichotomy” between the two.
Boylan disagrees with this assessment.
Fine Gael try and do it all the time. What I’ve said to everyone is, I’m trying to run a positive campaign, we’re trying to get out the positive message that we can deliver radical change in housing policy. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, they’ve ran out of ideas.
‘Drop a live location’
Reporting on a party political canvass as a journalist usually means agreeing to following a candidate in an area where the party might feel a good reception is more likely.
This was the case with Sinn Féin’s here, and following suit Rathmines was suggested as the location for The Journal to catch up with Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan.
A 15-minute cycle from St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Fine Gael canvass began at Lawlors Butchers and took in Cowper Road and number of nearby streets.
The whole thing was a much more high-tempo affair, with Geoghegan darting from door-to-door chatting as long as the householder wanted but running to the next door when he was finished.
A couple of canvassers were late to the 3pm meeting point but Geoghegan was keen to get a move on.
“Drop a live location and they’ll find us,” he says, telling The Journal that the WhatsApp feature is “absolutely crucial” for canvassing. He adds that he’s averaging 9km a day on his FitBit.
One of the tardy canvassers arrived about five minutes later and asked Geoghegan “what’s your line?”.
“Vote number one,” was the response from the candidate.
Geoghegan’s pitch is exceptionally well-drilled, telling the constituents that his priorities are the reopening of society from restrictions, better cycling and public transport infrastructure and more housing.
Like Sinn Féin, he says he’s also about change but feels a government TD is in a better position “to affect change”.
As he said himself to many of those who answered the door: “I’ve been a councillor for three years and I’d love to be your TD, I think it’s important to have a government TD in the Dáil to be able to affect change for the constituency instead of an opposition TD who may frustrate it.”
When The Journal put it to him that the constituency does have government TDs in the shape of Jim O’Callaghan (FF) and Eamon Ryan (Green), he says he also wants to “retain a Fine Gael voice” in DBS.
The issues raised with Geoghegan in the pricey suburb ranged from concerns over the BusConnects project affecting gardens, a lack of tax relief for parents caring for their children and the high cost of living in Dublin.
Geoghegan had a lengthy chat with a woman who was seeking childcare tax relief for parents. He assured her that he agreed with many of her points but that the Greens have the Children’s brief in government and that they favour investment over tax credits.
A barrister, Geoghegan said that both he and his wife are self-employed and therefore did not get the same supports to take leave when their two boys came along.
Geoghegan, 36, mentioned his age a number of times to voters and says that being unvaccinated he’s also keen that the country reopens soon but fairly. Does that mean he’s opposed to vaccine passes for hospitality?
I think we have to make it work because the alternative is unthinkable. The idea that hospitality businesses wouldn’t be able to operate until September. I mean that’s unthinkable, so we have to make it work.
Another woman who’s retired from a dental practice wants to downsize but says that small houses in the area are so expensive that she’d have to move elsewhere to do so.
A public health nurse also told him that she has three children who are saving for a house but that home ownership is currently out of reach for them.
He responds to the issue by saying that the best way to control prices is to increase supply and that this is “beginning to be addressed”.
One in three homes is now currently being built by the State and that’s all about getting affordable homes for people to buy and affordable homes for people to rent. You’re going to see a lot more of these developments coming on stream. Ireland hasn’t got a very strong history of affordable, State-subsidised housing. But it is now happening, it’s been slow, there’s no question about that but over the next few years you will see some examples like the Glass Bottle site, the Dundrum Mental Hospital site and Shanganagh.
He seems to have done something right because the woman says she’ll give him a consideration. “Sinn Féin won’t get it,” she says.
And on Sinn Féin, does he think the two parties talk about each other two much?
“It’s inevitable,” he says. “Politicians look at polls and there’s been 10 successive polls showing Fine Gael and Sinn Féin neck and neck. You look at what your opponents are saying and you put forward policies and I suppose from my vantage point there are distinct flaws in the Sinn Féin housing policy.”
Geoghegan bounds on to catch up with Gay Mitchell, the former Fine Gael TD and presidential candidate who’s out for him this afternoon.
Mitchell is in a suit despite the summer heat and is chatting away to people who know or recognise him.
Geoghegan is assured of some number ones, with one person saying they’re in a “reasonably strong Fine Gael house”.
Another voter mentions that the candidate’s “parents are well known” and that he’ll probably get his number 2. The man explains that his daughter is in Trinity and would be close to Bacik, who is a Law Professor there.
The parents the man referred to are Hugh Geoghegan and Mary Finlay-Geoghegan, both former Supreme Court judges.
Geoghegan’s background has been somewhat of a lightening rod for opponents to paint him as someone who may not be in tune with most voters. Has this been something he’s found difficult to deal with?
“Look, I think running for the Dáil is a really significant honour to be honest with you and you have to expect a high level of scrutiny of anyone who’s putting themselves forward. I am a new voice and I have received that level of scrutiny and it’s understandable. The public are entitled to know who their representatives are.”
And does he think they know him well enough to keep the seat in Fine Gael’s hands?
“I definitely think in every by-election voter turnout is the biggest issue. I mean even more so than in a general election. So some poll might come out and say you’re leading but we’re taking nothing for granted. It really is about getting out the vote, every vote.”
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