Sinn Féin denies making approach to Ó hAilpín
Weekend reports claimed the 28-year-old Cork captain had been the subject of a recruitment effort by Sinn Féin as it seeks to present a range of new prominent candidates nationwide.
Although Seán Óg himself could not be reached for comment yesterday, he was quoted in yesterday's Sunday Independent as having turned down the offer to run in the Cork North Central constituency.
"I have been approached but it's not for me," the paper quotes him as saying. But a spokeswoman for Sinn Féin last night denied any suggestion the party had tried to bring one of Ireland's best known sporting stars onboard.
"No I don't know anything about it and nobody down in Cork is aware of it. We're not aware of anything about it. It's not the way we do business. We usually tend to pick candidates from the community sphere," she said, adding that local councillor Jonathon O'Brien would likely emerge as the party's candidate after a scheduled convention in the coming weeks.
While there were also suggestions the Green Party had recently expressed interest in the football and hurling star, Fine Gael is known to have made an unsuccessful approach before last year's local elections.
Although the attraction for political parties is obvious, Ó hAilpín is said to be focused on his business career where he heads up the business development team at the Patrick St branch of the Ulster Bank in Cork.
He boasts All-Ireland winners' medals from 1999, 2004 and 2005 as well as a minor All-Ireland medal from 1995.
Meanwhile, with IRA decommissioning now imminent, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney yesterday defended assertions from Justice Minister Michael McDowell that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are still in overall control of the IRA.
It is made by Minister McDowell in a Channel 4 documentary on the Northern Bank robbery to be broadcast this week.
Although she stopped short of repeating Minister McDowell's claim, Ms Harney said people had to stop being naïve about Sinn Féin and the IRA.
"Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others are central to the thinking and the activities of the provisional IRA and have been for some considerable time," she said.
