{"id":69142,"date":"2025-09-17T07:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T07:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/69142\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T07:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T07:11:07","slug":"jim-gavin-rejects-suggestion-he-was-fine-gael-supporter-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/69142\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Gavin rejects suggestion he was Fine Gael supporter \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>\u2019s presidential candidate Jim Gavin<\/a> has dismissed suggestions made by opponents that he was a Fine Gael<\/a> supporter in the past. <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin acknowledged he was approached by Fine Gael to stand in a European election but had declined the offer. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum and dad came from West Clare. It\u2019s a staunch Fianna F\u00e1il part of the country, and I\u2019m very proud to represent Fianna F\u00e1il,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Asked about the Fine Gael approach, he said: \u201cI can\u2019t control that, but what I can control is how I respond to that. I was respectful and I politely declined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three declared presidential election<\/a> candidates attended the National Ploughing Championship<\/a> in Screggan, Co Offaly, on Tuesday. All are expected to spend much of the week there canvassing among a predicted cumulative attendance of 300,000.<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys joined the thousands who attended the Ploughing Championships. Video: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Presidential election: Jim Gavin says Government performance on housing \u2018not good enough\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

All were questioned about issues surrounding their candidacy. At a media interview, Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys was asked about weekend newspaper reports that she had attended an Orange Order parade in Co Monaghan a little over a decade ago. <\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys insisted the event, held in the Co Monaghan village of Drum, was an annual picnic and not a parade. She said people from across the community and from both sides of the border went to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cA Sinn F\u00e9in councillor came to it. \u00c9amon \u00d3 Cu\u00edv [former Fianna F\u00e1il TD] came to it back in 2009. People were absolutely delighted to see him there, and acknowledged how important it was that he did come, him being the grandson of \u00c9amon de Valera,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re ever going to get anywhere, we need to bring people together … I\u2019ve spent my life trying to bring people together, to break down those barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PresidentialPresidential candidate and Independent TD for Galway West, Catherine Connolly, meets with Matthew McGowan, Rory Houlihan, Jeff O\u2019Brien, from Belgooly, Co Cork at the National Ploughing Championships on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

Independent candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> was visiting the Ploughing Championship for the first time. <\/p>\n

Asked about the \u201cblackface\u201d Halloween costume controversy<\/a> surrounding Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes<\/a>, Ms Connolly said this is a matter for the Social Democrats to deal with internally but that many people have unknowingly said racists things in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all said and done things in our lives, and we have said many racist things actually in our past, that we didn\u2019t even think were racist,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s appalling, unacceptable, but we should all learn. I taught Travellers for three years. I was witness to what they suffered and the racist comments. And so we should all learn. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something to decry as such. It\u2019s something to learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin hugged and exchanged pleasantries when they met at the National Ploughing Championships. Video: Harry McGee <\/p>\n

Blackface is a historical practice that is widely viewed as racist and deeply offensive. It commonly refers to when a person, typically with white skin, paints their face darker to resemble a black person and dates back to a time when black people were mocked for the entertainment of white people promoting negative stereotypes.<\/p>\n

Ms Connolly also said she would not be making an apology for her decision to nominate Gemma O\u2019Doherty for the 2018 presidential election. Ms O\u2019Doherty has drawn criticism for comments she has made on a wide number of issues including vaccination and immigration, in addition to her critics claiming she has spread conspiracy theories. <\/p>\n

\u201cI made the best decision I could at the time,\u201d said Ms Connolly. \u201cLet\u2019s remember that that journalist was an award-winning journalist and there was an unfair dismissal against the paper she worked for. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did not support Gemma O\u2019Doherty. I have never supported her, but I nominated her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said \u201ceven Mystic Meg does not know\u201d what is happening with Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s process to select a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the festival, the Fine Gael leader implied that Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s handling of the issue has been \u201ccarefully curated and media managed\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said the party will disclose its strategy on Saturday \u201cjust in time for the Sunday papers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Asked about the \u201cblackface\u201d controversy surrounding Mr Hayes, he said what happened \u201cwas wrong then and is wrong now\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also something that was 16 years ago,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter for the Social Democrats. The man has apologised.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s presidential candidate Jim Gavin has dismissed suggestions made by opponents that he was a Fine Gael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[39988,9,10,1921,7486,18,46418,13,14,4771,553,6,555,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-69142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-national-ploughing-championships","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-catherine-connolly","12":"tag-clare","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-eoin-hayes","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-fianna-fail","18":"tag-fine-gael","19":"tag-headlines","20":"tag-heather-humphreys","21":"tag-ie","22":"tag-ireland","23":"tag-jim-gavin","24":"tag-latest-news","25":"tag-latestnews","26":"tag-main-news","27":"tag-mainnews","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-presidential-election","30":"tag-top-stories","31":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69142","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=69142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}