{"id":53141,"date":"2025-09-09T15:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53141\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:00:09","slug":"jim-gavin-honoured-to-be-selected-as-fianna-fail-presidential-candidate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53141\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Gavin \u2018honoured\u2019 to be selected as Fianna F\u00e1il presidential candidate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly selected Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> presidential candidate Jim Gavin<\/a> has told journalists he is a \u201ccentrist\u201d, and a \u201cconstitutional republican\u201d who voted for both repeal of the Eighth Amendment and for marriage equality.<\/p>\n

In his first comments to the media, an hour after being formally selected as the party\u2019s candidate, Mr Gavin (54) said he was \u201cdelighted and honoured\u201d to receive the nomination. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great honour for myself, a great honour for my family. I\u2019m thinking this time of my father, Jimmy, who has from West Clare, who\u2019d be very proud of me, and indeed for my community in Clondalkin, [Dublin] and the wider Gavin family,\u201d he said outside the gates of Leinster House on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He paid tribute to his opponent, MEP Billy Kelleher<\/a>, who performed considerably better than most party insiders had expected, saying they had a \u201crobust competition and I\u2019ve been involved in competitions all my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this will be the toughest competition that I\u2019ve ever been involved in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"“I\u201cI think this will be the toughest competition that I\u2019ve ever been involved in.\u201d Jim Gavin emerges victorious from Fianna F\u00e1il’s presidential candidate selection vote on Tuesday. Photograph: Collins How does the presidential election work? Kate Byrne explains. Video: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

A special meeting of the party\u2019s 71-strong parliamentary party had taken place earlier at Leinster House to choose between Mr Gavin or Mr Kelleher. <\/p>\n

The party\u2019s TDs, Senators and MEPs heard pitches from both perspective candidates before voting in a secret ballot. The result was 41 votes in favour of the GAA stalwart, compared to 29 for the Co Cork-based MEP. <\/p>\n

Asked about the 40 per cent of Fianna F\u00e1il that didn\u2019t back him, Mr Gavin said: \u201cWell, for me, the presidency is all about being the first person of the State, not the first politician. You know, we had a competition this morning. I think that was really important. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Jim Gavin profile: Is the former Dublin GAA manager a good fit for president?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI won that competition and now I\u2019m nominated as the candidate for Fianna F\u00e1il. I will really look forward to getting on the road, meeting people, visiting all the communities, all the villages in Ireland, as best I can, over the next two months.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin said he had confined himself to speaking to the parliamentary party in recent weeks, but now looked forward to engaging more widely on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople know me already from sport, from my work in the northeast inner city, from my 20 years serving in Oglaigh na hEireann. So people know me, but obviously, I think over the next two months they\u2019re going to get to know me better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Miche\u00e1l Martin now needs his party victor Jim Gavin to win the presidential electionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Asked what he stood for, Mr Gavin said he was a centrist and a proud, constitutional republican. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve served the State, I\u2019m motivated by a sense of duty, I\u2019m motivated by serving the people of the country. That has always been in my DNA and look forward now to taking this presidential campaign out to the people and to show them what I\u2019m about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked where he stood on recent constitutional changes, in particular the abortion referendum, Mr Gavin said: \u201cIn terms of repeal the eighth, it was a difficult moral decision for the country, what ultimately became about women\u2019s rights, and what was right for women and the right to choose. So I voted yes, to repeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of marriage equality, I\u2019m all for equality. I think Ireland sent a very strong signal out in terms of that we\u2019re a progressive nation, and we\u2019re inclusive, we respect all. So I voted, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il leader Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> paid tribute to Billy Kelleher, saying the contest had \u201cenergised the party\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was \u201ca very good vibe in the room this morning, [a] very good spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to whether the vote between the two candidates could be interpreted as a \u201creferendum\u201d on his leadership of the party, he said \u201cthere was a referendum on Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s leadership \u2013 it was less than a year ago. It was called the general election, and I think the people gave their answer. We\u2019re a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Tuesday morning\u2019s vote, Mr Gavin had the declared support of more than 30 members of the parliamentary party, including the Taoiseach and all senior Cabinet Ministers.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelleher had just five party colleagues who had publicly declared support for him \u2013 MEP Barry Andrews, TDs P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan, James O\u2019Connor, Peter Cleere and Senator Paul Daly. <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin is best known for his involvement with the GAA. He was part of the Dublin team that won the Sam Maguire by defeating Tyrone in 1995. He had a hugely successful stint as Dublin football boss with the team winning six All-Ireland titles during his tenure.<\/p>\n

Raised in Clondalkin, his parents were from West Clare. He had a career in the Defence Forces, joining the Air Corps as a cadet officer. He had trained as a pilot, rising quickly through the ranks to become chief flying instructor and chief of military aviation in the Air Corps. He also served in overseas military operations, most notably in Chad.<\/p>\n

A trained commercial jet pilot, he has spent his post-Defence Forces career on the public service side, as a senior aviation regulator. He is currently chief operations officer of the Irish Aviation Authority where he has overall operational responsibility for air safety in Ireland.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he chaired a Citizens\u2019 Assembly examining the case for a directly elected mayor for Dublin. He has also chaired, since 2023, a taskforce seeking to improve services, facilities and the quality of life in Dublin\u2019s northeast inner city.<\/p>\n

\"BillyBilly Kelleher speaking outside Leinster House after Jim Gavin wins the Fianna Fail presidential nomination. Photograph: Collins <\/p>\n

Mr Kelleher, arriving for the vote, said he had been engaging with party colleagues, \u201chighlighting my credentials, how I feel the presidency should go in terms of the values our party promotes across the country, the type of campaign we would be running\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said he would seek \u201cto ensure that they understand the importance of the presidency not in terms of just the constitutional powers it has but more importantly the soft power the president has in terms of speaking for citizens, advocating for citizens and those on the margins is an important aspect of the presidency as well as obligations constitutionally and ceremonial as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mood within the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party in advance of the vote had been taut, with some TDs leaning into the suggestion the result would carry weight for Mr Martin and even influence the future leadership of the party. <\/p>\n

Others were more positive about the potential fallout, scotching suggestions the vote signified a divide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly selected Fianna F\u00e1il presidential candidate Jim Gavin has told journalists he is a \u201ccentrist\u201d, and a \u201cconstitutional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9316,9,10,18,13,14,4771,6,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5765,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-53141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-billy-kelleher","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-fianna-fail","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-jim-gavin","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-micheal-martin","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-presidential-election","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}