It will have swung back by the next poll! This was taken before the Prime Time “debate” – still very difficult to believe how he has scored so high in this poll!! Some people seem to be very easily hoodwinked!!!! :(

Am I the only one to notice that this git is a Fianna Fáil Man going under a Independent banner? How is he in the lead in the Polls? Seriously, have people forgotten already?

Yes, yes he does…

hey Ur not me

In Enda’s defense he was blatantly disappointed when Mitchell was picked, as were most FG one the ground members, from the ones I know.

A lot of the people that backed Mitchell are from the real loolah* wing of FG, Brian Hayes, Lucinda Cretin, Varadkar etc etc, all staunch opponents of Kenny. Kenny will be able to castigate them for disrupting the party in last year’s heave, giving them their worst Presidential candidate on record, in a race they should have been a serious contender for and going by the above, helping FF be resurrected by Gallagher’s election, sanitizing the relationship between developers and politics once more.

I’d say Kenny is as bout as secure as any leader could ever be.

*as opposed to the general loohlah wing.

Nothing to do with Enda, he wanted Cox 1st choice, Mairead Mc Guinness 2nd choice, FG now need Labour to win and keep coalition partners happy with tough budget soon

Very astute observation, Tony. If there is a shift away from that side of FG as a result of this, do you see the party becoming more left-wing?

I’d see Kenny as representing the side of FG that could be described as Social/Christian democrats, the grouping that loved Garrett. The Cretins and Hayes and Varadkars are very right, they are basically people who should have joined the PD’s but who missed that boat. I think that FG will go further to the right, as a lot of the gombeen wing of FF will migrate to them. I think that Kenny will put some of the troublemakers in the back benches, he has enough choice, why put up with them trying to sabotage things any longer.

That said, they might not if Gallagher gets elected, as it shows that they can come back, it will give them that belief.

Ken The fact that Enda wanted Cox or McGuinness and couldn’t orchestrate it is a concern surely

@Tony – thanks for the reply. Thoughtful as always.

“a lot of the gombeen wing of FF will migrate to them.” Possibly, but that might underestimate just how hard the ‘auld divide’ between the two partys are at that level. I know of people in both last elections who were FF and refused to vote FG because “my parents/grandparents would turn in their grave.” Unbelievable, but true.

As I don’t have a problem with real Socialists, real Christians, or real Democrats, then that would be a move I’d like to see. Surely if Mitchell loses it would give Enda all the ammunition he needs?

@Tony: The fact that you seem to be inferring Fianna Fáil is more to the Right of Fine Gael is patently false & betrays a certain ignorance of Irish politics…

That’s the thing Paul, Tony’s quite correct. There’s one wing of FG that’s to the left of FF and another that’s firmly to the right of FF. He’s also bang on the money as to where that right wing would have gone if the PDs still existed.

Was he a FF TD? Councilar or senator?

He was a FF National Executive – no small role

And he’s still a member, because he never resigned as one, has every FF backwoods troll out canvassing for him and defending him online, and has employed FFers en masse on his campaign.

@Ryan: His resignation letter is a matter of record. So that’s either a lie or you’re honestly mistaken.
There are certainly Fianna Fáilers on his campaign, but in my own experience more of them are working on Davis’s campaign than Gallagher’s. And a very large proportion of them are voting for MDH.
I know that because I will be voting for Davis mainly BECAUSE Séan Gallagher is viewed as a man who jumped ship by a large section of those within Fianna Fáil.
I’m glad we could clear those “misperceptions” up.

No, Paul, It is you that is mistaken. Seanie boy resigned from the National Executive (two years after he said he did).

He never resigned from Fianna Fail.

Todays indo story was a non story….

Tony you getting way ahead of yourself, i wouldn`t even try and predict the next 10 days , you have just wrapped up the next ten years.

God I hope not but it could happen. The only way FF will be able to do so is if they make a clean break with the past.

You’re getting way ahead of yourself Tony.
Although there’s undoubtedly been a “thaw” in the past few wks, Fianna Fáil has many yrs of work to do to regain the voters’ trust.

Are people really such idiots?!! Guess so!!! :(

Do you mean you’d give her your number one, or give her one?

years anniversary into a business expo

Moron

He might be taking the piss, but I guarantee you a thousand cross eyed rednecks and opportunistic student types are saying something very similiar.

Muppet!

It is the payback that is the problem, pretty much all the canvassers that are out for Gallagher in my area, are the same ones that canvassed for FF in the GE. Most of his staff and campaign directors are prominent FF party members. When he is President, he’ll have to return the favour to the Party for getting so behind him, and that will be done by favouring local FF’ers in Presidential visits.

It will also be a massive psychological boost to the FF org. if they can get one of their own in who is a developer, who borrowed money off the state and then refused to pay it back, who got 750k in state supports, who sat on several quango’s, then getting a run of the mill TD in again should be no challenge.

If he gets it, then FF will survive as a major party. The faces from the last Govt. will sit in Govt. once more, only in Ireland.

A real possibility, so the last thing Gallagher needs is to be seen as a FF President. If he starts appointing people with too many obvious links to FF while President …

He’d be as well off, if elected, to favour those who wish to remove the current leadership and start from the grassroots up. A much more left-wing freindly party would help; given our current situation there’s plenty of appitite for it.

Preferential visits to the Áras for Fianna Fáilers?
That’s the worst scenario you could come up with?!

That’s not what he said, and to be fair there are far worse likelihoods.

That sounds like an interesting way to compare the candidates – but where could you find anyone independent (yet knowledgeable) enough to complete said table. Anyways I’d like to collaborate with you. Msg me on Facebook.

Eoin

The thing is though Terry, is that in a democracy *you* are the expert, and you decide what a credible person is!

And in that vein, I am interested in what attributes people think the candidates have -

running a survey here on personality and the Presidency http://candidate.ie/?page_id=1354

all and every opinion welcome!

This data was polled from the start of the week prior to his refusals to blame FF for our economic collapse.

read the indo ?….. yes fair and balanced im sure…..our very in version of that rag the new York post

So the answer is to elect a FF’er who made all his money off the building bubble that his party created, who received nearly a million in state supports, who had to be taken to court by the state to force him to pay back money that he owed. Jesus wept, people. He says he is independent but he most certainly is not. He is as far from independent as one can get, only Norris and Dana are independent in this race.

Tony, have you got any links on those incidents? Cheers.

Funny to hear the SF’ers moan about SG earned money from the building industry blah blah. We all know how they “collected” their money…

Mairead McGuinness would have being a far better contender for Fine Gael, but Enda’s choice of her or Pat Cox was overrulled, apparently.

It’s amazing what money can buy

True, but even so, 13% for McGuinness is not a good return for all the cash spent.

well said john how can we just forgive and forget for ffail again its a mystery

This is just a poll! Highly inaccurate, I suspect!!! Irish people have more intelligence than this – wish the polls could be more representative of our opinions!!!! :(

Surely not Martin Mandella???

infairness knocking on doors in one or two constituencies does not reflect national opinion and the red c polls have generally been correct to under 5pc variance in recent years… although I would personally believe on the day Sinn fein may come in top two

The only people who are saying that they’re getting a "different" viewpoint on the doors are those whose campaigns aren’t going too well.

1 the impression you get on the doors doesn’t matter. People are very polite in this election as it’s pretty unimportant. Polls are the only true picture.

If someone tells you they just came back from a good canvass, ignore it.

not voting michael d but how can u say sean g has better credentials then m d ????

Martin which FF Cumann do you belong too ?

Sean. Only took 2 clicks, one on his “name”, and on “show more pages” to see he is down as a FF’er. They are like the borg, they just keeping assimilating and changing or maybe they are more like cancer in our society. If they come back this time, they will finish off this country, they destroyed this economy in the 30′s, 50′s,70′s and this decade. Once more and we are finished we’ll have no sovereignty left, as is they are so engrained in society it will take a generation for their pernicious influence to dissipate to tolerable levels.

16 of them here judging by the number of red thumbs I got for "outing" them.

@Tony – much the same could be said against SF.

we r all trolling the web including yourself

Mary McAleese is a FF president.

Thats because he knew it was the bank guarantee, he as a proud FF man wasn`t going to bring that up, also Mc Guinness was asked several times why he left the IRA, no one asked Gallagher why he left FF ? We can forget RTE ever asking him any tough questions.

I’m starting to wonder if Martin ever left the IRA. Picking up on Vincent Browne’s book club, I read “Martin mcGuinness: From Guns to Government” (ISBN 1 84018 473 6) this eveining. I recomend it for anyone wishing to learn more about MMG’s life, and its not pretty.

More than a little unfair, Darren. He never held a goverment post.

No he never held a government post, just a position on the executive of FF when they pointed the nose downward and dived the Irish economy, at full throttle, engines screaming, into the ground. And in doing so FF died in it’s sleep, not screaming in terror like their passengers.

I meant to say…FF died peacefully in their sleep not screaming in terror like their passengers

@ Sean C – then don’t vote for him.

Adrian you can rest assured I won’t be voting for him, and as a lifetime FF voter, I won’t be voting for any FF candidate again until FF offers an apology for their betrayal of the trust placed in them by people like me. Until they acknowledge what they’ve done they can never be trusted again.

Punctuation would be nice

I would agree with you but I spent the eveining reading Clarke and Johnston’s bio of MMG. It scared the living daylights out of me. What that man has done to get to where he is does not deserve a vote.

For anybody interested, said book is “Martin mcGuinness: From Guns to Government”, ISBN 1 84018 473 6. I got my copy from the local library. I’m sure there must be others. Vincent Browne had about a dozen on the table a few nights back.

not sure the point your trying to make. We already know McGuinness was an IRA leader and that you think this was borne out of a lust for violence on his part. Thats your position so not sure why you keep repeating it.

Maybe you should also read up about the history of British state brutality throughout the world. Examples include their support of mass muder General Suharto of indonesia who was responsible for comitting genocide against his own people; The british government act of genocide directly against the Iraqi people through sanctions which is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of women and children.

Maybe you should also read up about the history of Ireland from the time of the ulster plantations to partition to state terrorism against catholics and then maybe you will at least understand why the provisional IRA existed.

Andrew, I have. There is no excuse whatsoever for the brutality that the British inflicted upon our people. None.

But none of them are running as candidates in this election. Martin McGuinness is. And he has always defended the IRA’s actions, many of which were utterly indefensible. There is no point in getting rid of the British if we replace them with monsters of our own.

There are €249,014 reasons.

A further two being the rehabilitation of Fianna Fail, and that parties self perception that the job, created by DeV to keep his hand in, remains theirs by right.

Yep, the ultimate quango followed by a lifetime of (more) board memberships and free dinners. To pretend you want the job with a purpose in mind is just insulting to the electorate. This whole prez circus is like the coliseum, distract the plebs with sport.