Fallout from Connacht-Ulster revolt will spread to Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis

Political Correspondent Fionnán Sheahan says FF grassroots will not accept imposed candidates.

DESPITE the party leadership's best efforts, democracy lives within Fianna Fáil.

In its categoric backing of sitting MEP Seán Ó Neachtáin at the weekend, the party grassroots in the north-west sent out a clear message to the FF hierarchy that Dublin will not impose candidates against the will of the local rank and file.

In hindsight, perhaps FF headquarters should have used electronic voting at the European election selection convention in the Royal Hotel in Roscommon to make sure Frank Fahey got the nod. Apparently, the e-voting system always delivers the "right" result.

The fallout from the Connacht-Ulster revolt will kick on to the FF Árd Fheis next weekend.

Just wait to hear the cheer when Mr Ó Neachtáin is introduced to the crowd of 5,000 packed in to the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

While Mr Ó Neachtáin may have won the nomination, it's another prospect entirely to hold the seat he got for free as the party substitute when Pat "The Cope" Gallagher returned from Brussels to go back into Dáil Éireann. Fianna Fáil has been unsubtly telling anyone listening for the past few months that Mr Ó Neachtáin hasn't a hope in hell of holding on to that seat. Considering he has only contested local elections in Galway to date, it's a giant leap for him to now have to attract more than 50,000 votes from an area now sprawling from the Clare to Cavan.

Whether or not his new-found celebrity status and instant high-profile will be enough to make him a credible contender remains to be seen, but his ratification will certainly be watched with interest by sitting MEP "Dana" Rosemary Scallon and independent TD Marian Harkin, who is also aiming to take a seat. As the result of the convention was being digested, some fingers of suspicion were pointing towards the FF organisation in Donegal.

While there is no suggestion at all that he is to blame for Mr Fahey's failure, the result certainly guarantees Dr Jim McDaid as the No 1 FF candidate and in pole position to take a seat.

The north-west is not the only constituency where FF ambitions to secure eight seats in the European elections are in turmoil.

After the carve-up of the renamed South constituency between the sitting MEPs, record-making and poll-topping MEP Brian Crowley is adamant that he won't be banned from parts of Munster.

In a symbolic act of defiance on Saturday, Mr Crowley and his supporters went ahead with a planned canvass in Roscrea in north Tipperary part of the region allocated to Gerry Collins by the FF national executive.

After assiduously working the region and building up a loyal network of supporters across Munster for the past 10 years, Mr Crowley is refusing to accept that he must ignore his constituents and stay out of half this area.

"Democracy and elections are a very sacred process. No one will force me to denigrate that process. The people of Munster will decide my future, if I have one or not, when they go to vote next June not some election strategy committee," he says.

Referring to the campaign divide as a fundamental matter of principle, the MEP says no one can press him to do something he doesn't believe in.

"The constituency commission are an independent body and the only body that can decide the shape of the constituencies. We don't have a choice in the matter," says Mr Crowley.

FF director of elections John O'Donoghue and Mr Collins both say their best chance of holding on to the two seats, now the constituency is reduced to a three-seater, is a divide of the constituency.

Behind the scenes, questions are being raised about the validity of the decision taken by the FF national executive last Thursday when it ratified a divide put forwards by Mr O'Donoghue's strategy committee.

Without Mr Crowley on board, it's hard to see how that vote management strategy can work.

In the capital, the Taoiseach is personally intervening to sort out a prospective divide between FF TD Eoin Ryan and Lord Mayor of Dublin Royston Brady.

Significantly, the FF national executive could not agree upon where the line should be drawn.

The River Liffey or thereabouts was expected to be the division with Mr Ryan on the southside and Cllr Brady on the northside.

According to well informed FF sources, Cllr Brady is pointing out that his status as first citizen of Dublin makes it impossible for him to be excluded from areas of the city.