A DIFFICULT EXCHANGE with a carer in the small north Cork town of Kanturk became the focal point of questions over Simon Harris’ ability to rally voters to the Fine Gael cause.
The ground game in elections happens in small shops and businesses dotted across the small streets of rural towns for the most part – far from the party Ard Feiseanna and at press conferences on the plinth in Leinster House.
Unscripted moments can be a damaging jab to a campaign. Like the incident in a SuperValu in Kanturk when carer Charlotte Fallon criticised the Taoiseach Simon Harris about what she said she perceived were his party’s policies towards carers.
The Journal headed for the town today and spoke to local people to get their view on the fallout from the one real standout moment from an otherwise insipid campaign.
Kanturk is located to the north west of the town of Mallow in the farming heartland close to the Cork and Limerick border. It is a small town of about 2,000 people, straddling the banks of two rivers. It’s name comes from the Irish Ceann Tuirc meaning Boar’s Head.
The local TD here is Fianna Fail’s Michael Moynihan and many people we spoke to said they would support him in the election.
Businesses here are agriculture focused for the most part – steam pours from a local creamery and a lot of the people we spoke to either work in the busy service businesses or in farming.
The key takeaway from the vox-pops we conducted with 17 people is that they are tired of the campaign – and are generally apathetic towards politics.
Voters listed the cost of living, housing and farming as their key policies that will inform how they vote.
The first voter we met was Denis Manley walking his greyhound Manley Girl along the street.
“She won the consolation oaks in Clonmel – she’s retired now and I’ve kept her as a pet,” the greyhound trainer said.
“I haven’t much interest in politics really. I vote for the local man all the time, who ever is local,” he said.
For Denis the key issue is: “The price of messages in the shops, they are gone bedamned.”
We met Paul Byrne sitting in his van across the road from the SuperValu where the Taoiseach and Charlotte Fallon had their disagreement.
“I just feel there hasn’t been much clarity – I don’t see much leadership. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and listen to their politics but I really feel that they don’t connect with what the people are going through.
“Simon Harris is just really disconnected – I’m not saying he’s not competent in his own field but people are struggling and they are not seeing leadership,” he said.
Paul added that he believes people need to connect to their communities because “there’s a lot of anger and a lot of nastiness”.
“That comes down to listening to people, it doesn’t matter whether it is a carer or a CEO – you [politicians] have to listen to everybody,” he added.
Paul said that the main issue is the cost of living and said that while there are claims of a booming economy “people aren’t feeling it”.
“We need to put more money into people’s pockets – they’re working hard enough for it,” he added.
Gerry Daly was standing outside the SuperValu when we met him – he believes the Taoiseach was treated badly in the wake of his disagreement with Charlotte Fallon.
“I think he was treated a bit unfairly to be honest about it. I thought he has been up and down the country and it was the end of a long day. The country is going pretty well at the moment and I think it was probably unfortunate rather than anything else,” he said.
Gerry is a farmer and it is issues faced by people in the agriculture sector that will inform how he votes but said with high cattle prices he believes that “things are going well”.
And as for the outcome: “I think the election is too close to call. It is too tight with Sinn Fein, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.”
Mick Murphy was doing a bit a window shopping waiting for his wife to come out of the local post office when we chatted to him.
He said he felt that the election campaign has “been very quiet” and he said not too many canvassers have been calling to his home.
Mick gave his view on the incident with the Taoiseach in the local Super Valu.
“I think he handled it very badly. I watched the video of it. She was entitled to ask the questions and he went and ignored her basically,” he said.
Mick believes the key issue is housing.
“Our kids, and young people, are trying to get houses and they are not there – so I think that is the big thing,” he added.
Robert Hegarty is a Cork city man originally but moved to Kanturk some years ago- he said he now spends much of his time in Spain.
He is a Fianna Fail supporter but he believes that there is a need for a change in Government.
“We need to put Sinn Fein and other parties in with them.
“Since they [Fianna Fail] went into coalition with Fine Gael things haven’t been happening,” he explained.
The incident in the SuperValu, Robert believes has had an impact on voters in Kanturk.
“I think it shaped a lot of people’s views as regards Fine Gael. I don’t think he treated her very well, he didn’t respect her,” he explained.
Robert believes housing will be the biggest issue for voters.
“I know we have a refugee problem and that kind of stuff but our own people living on the streets is scandalous and the cost of rents… they need to do something about it,” he added.
A number of people we met on the streets of Kanturk were from Eastern Europe. The last person we met, walking towards SuperValu, was Yuliia Ivanytska who is a Ukrainian refugee from the west of the war torn country.
She said she can’t vote as she is not a citizen of Ireland but said that she sees her life in Ireland because she “loves Ireland so much”.
She believes, as an observer, that the key consideration is housing.
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