Gavan Reilly: The way to the Aras is to convince, not criticise
Project Fear is in full flow. Heather Humphreys has been forced to clarify that Ivan Yates doesn’t speak for her campaign - and of course he doesn’t - but his unsolicited advice to “smear the bejaysus” out of Catherine Connolly is perhaps revealing of Fine Gael instincts.
The practice of 2025 is nothing new: in the 15 years that I’ve been covering this beat full time, Fine Gael have always been the most vigorous at negative campaigning - spending more time critiquing the fitness of others than advancing their own position.
Have a look at the ‘news’ section on Fine Gael’s website today. As of Tuesday morning, you’d have to go back to the 40th-oldest entry to find a press release or statement that is pro-Heather - but four of the most recent eight statements are critical of Connolly.
Fine Gael’s press team are more assertive about portraying Humphreys as a consensus candidate, now getting voters from Fianna Fail.
Connolly has mastered the art of answering a question by challenging its premise, instead of offering a direct reply. Pat Kenny offered the example of Michael D Higgins pledging only to serve one term, but seeking a second.
How do we know neither candidate would go back on their words? You’re comparing one president with another, says Connolly. Question challenged, not answered.
See also: Connolly continually lamenting the loss of privacy of someone who was considered such a threat to society that their trial for firearms offences couldn’t take place with a jury, when asked by Colette Fitzpatrick and others.
That person is of course entitled to rebuild their life - but they are not entitled to rewrite their own history in the courts. And the question of whether it was appropriate for a TD to sign them into one of the country’s most sensitive buildings on a daily basis, when clearance from the Gardai was clearly not forthcoming. People do not require access to Leinster House to make positive contributions to society.
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Another evasion is on the visit to Syria - which she said “I funded”, as if it came out of her own pocket, rather than a parliamentary allowance drawn from the pockets of others.
When Colette Fitzpatrick suggested her presence, alongside an official in Bashar Assad’s government, allowed her to be used for propaganda purposes.
Connolly offered the savvy soundbite that nobody could ever be able to manipulate her for propaganda - circumventing the truth that the presence of European politicians is, precisely, embraced by despots and presented to their public and the world as a sign of being the ‘good guys’.
But back to Humphreys, who is ostensibly running on her record and continually finds she cannot. In 14 years in the Dail for Cavan-Monaghan, the only times she ever said the words ‘Shane O’Farrell’ were as the interim Minister for Justice, defending the State’s handling.
To overtake Connolly she will need to start winning over the 30 per cent-ish undecided vote, and that means not just criticising - it means offering. Her big gambit of ‘joining trade trips’ is both a politicisation of the presidency and, tellingly, something she neglected to even mention once on Sunday’s radio debate. Such is the instinct to criticise instead of convince.