{"id":85604,"date":"2025-09-25T22:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/85604\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T22:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T22:31:08","slug":"i-was-hoping-for-paul-mescal-tourist-says-after-meeting-jim-gavin-on-campaign-trail-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/85604\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was hoping for Paul Mescal,\u2019 tourist says after meeting Jim Gavin on campaign trail \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Gavin<\/a> chatted to Canadian couple Maja Crawley and Colin Landrie during a short Dart journey between Blackrock and Dalkey in South Dublin on Thursday. <\/p>\n

The pair seemed somewhat bemused to have come upon the Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> presidential election candidate\u2019s large entourage during their journey.<\/p>\n

An Irish Rail staff member kept a close eye to make sure there was no canvassing on board as this is a no-no for the transport company.<\/p>\n

Team Gavin told him they were only on board to \u201cget from A to B\u201d and the candidate was on safe ground talking to the Canadian pair who do not have a vote in the election. <\/p>\n

D\u00fan Laoghaire TD Cormac Devlin<\/a> told the tourists that Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> was in Canada<\/a> to meet their prime minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n

So did the couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba, expect to encounter a presidential election candidate on their trip to Ireland?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping for Paul Mescal<\/a> or Dermot Kennedy<\/a>,\u201d Ms Crawley said. <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin does not have the same kind of star power as the actor or the singer-songwriter, but who does in fairness?<\/p>\n

The former Dublin GAA manager, a newcomer to politics, does enjoy some fame due to his multiple All-Ireland winning efforts and there was the odd \u2018Up the Dubs\u2019 as he canvassed in the South Dublin suburbs. He met footballers Paul Mannion and Con O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> in D\u00fan Laoghaire. The pair later featured in a campaign video backing him.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Gavin, centre, chats to voters in a cafe in South Dublin. Photograph: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

But what is Mr Gavin telling voters regarding his plans for the presidency? <\/p>\n

Voters Anne O\u2019Leary and Rimiko Ogata got the pitch in a Blackrock cafe. They got a technical explanation of the powers of the presidency, such as scrutinising Bills and appointing taoisigh and ministers after elections.<\/p>\n

He also said the office had \u201cthe power to highlight things\u201d like disadvantage and \u201cthose who mightn\u2019t have a voice\u201d and to \u201cshine a light on people who provide services\u201d.<\/p>\n

This would be a \u201cbig part\u201d of his presidency, he told them.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Leary asked for an example and Mr Gavin mentioned the kind of places he visited while canvassing in Navan, Co Meath, the previous day including a childcare centre. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about highlighting the really good things in the country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Speaking afterwards, Ms O\u2019Leary and Ms Ogata said they had not been Fianna F\u00e1il supporters in the past, but would consider voting for Mr Gavin.<\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Leary said that with Mr Martin as leader she was more open to the party. Ms Ogata agreed. <\/p>\n

Mr Gavin, of course, is the person the Taoiseach backed to be Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s candidate. He held off Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher<\/a> in the internal parliamentary party vote to select a candidate, but by a thinner margin than many expected.<\/p>\n

One of Mr Kelleher\u2019s supporters in that contest, Dublin MEP Barry Andrews<\/a>, was on the canvass with Mr Gavin.<\/p>\n

Is he ruing the fact that it is Mr Gavin rather than Mr Kelleher pounding the pavements on the campaign trail?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ancient history,\u201d Mr Andrews said. \u201cWe had a great contest and are delighted that Jim is our candidate. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very lucky. His record of service is really unbelievable. I came across him in humanitarian work when I was in [aid agency] Goal and he was in the Air Corps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next four weeks he\u2019ll grow as a candidate and get to know the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, does he believe Mr Gavin can stay ahead of the Fine Gael<\/a> candidate, Heather Humphreys<\/a>, when it comes to first preference votes?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so, yeah,\u201d Mr Andrews said.<\/p>\n

A widely held view among commentators is that whichever Coalition party candidate is ahead \u2013 Mr Gavin or Ms Humphreys \u2013 will benefit from transfers from the other, propelling them to the presidency over left-wing Independent Catherine Connolly<\/a>, who is backed by Opposition parties.<\/p>\n

Mr Andrews said \u201cthe concentration on first preference will be the main thing here\u201d and \u201cthat\u2019s why he\u2019s working as hard as he is\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an amazingly energetic candidate,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are really responding to him well on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Blackrock, Eugene Kenny, from \u201ca Fianna F\u00e1il house\u201d, said he would vote for Mr Gavin as \u201che seems to be the best of the three at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He described him as a \u201cmiddle-of-the-road kind of guy\u201d who is \u201cable to speak pretty well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another voter in the village, Jane McGauran, told Mr Gavin how Ms Connolly was particularly vocal on the horror of the war in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr McGauran is a volunteer with the Children Not Numbers charity and is a member of Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine. She is in contact with families in Gaza who have \u201cvery sick children\u201d including some with injuries from explosives.<\/p>\n

She asked if Mr Gavin would speak out about the war and advocate for injured children to come to Ireland. He told her what was happening in Gaza was \u201cgenocide\u201d and said he would \u201cspeak out against that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fighting needs to stop, the hostages need to be handed back by Hamas<\/a> and we need to get aid into Gaza and to get those women and children and people out,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I will champion that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She later said she was impressed with Mr Gavin\u2019s answer. \u201cI hope he follows through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would she vote for him? <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll read his manifesto and I\u2019ll have a think about it. I haven\u2019t decided,\u201d said the doctor, who is also considering voting for Ms Connolly.<\/p>\n

In these early days of the campaign, Dr McGauran was not alone during the canvass in being in the \u201cthinking about it\u201d category when it comes to Mr Gavin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Gavin chatted to Canadian couple Maja Crawley and Colin Landrie during a short Dart journey between Blackrock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[56563,9316,9,10,995,1921,56562,27461,18,13,14,4771,553,3761,69,6,555,19,17,19487,11,12,15,16,5765,5,23432,59,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-85604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-barry-andrews","9":"tag-billy-kelleher","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-catherine-connolly","14":"tag-con-o-callaghan","15":"tag-dermot-kennedy","16":"tag-eire","17":"tag-featured-news","18":"tag-featurednews","19":"tag-fianna-fail","20":"tag-fine-gael","21":"tag-gaza-strip","22":"tag-hamas","23":"tag-headlines","24":"tag-heather-humphreys","25":"tag-ie","26":"tag-ireland","27":"tag-jim-gavin","28":"tag-latest-news","29":"tag-latestnews","30":"tag-main-news","31":"tag-mainnews","32":"tag-micheal-martin","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-paul-mescal","35":"tag-presidential-election","36":"tag-top-stories","37":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85604","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=85604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}