Kirk’s bold campaign fails to lift off

DRIVING out of Dublin on the N4 at night, the posters loom out of the darkness. They are massive, illuminated, unmissable. They portray a “Fine Gael winning team,” Enda flanked by Avril and Mairéad.

It’s only when you’re passing that you notice that there is a second poster alongside. But damned luck would have it that the poster’s floodlights are on the blink. As you pass, you just about make out the image and lettering, dimly lit by the reflected light from the Fine Gael beacon. Kirk, it says above the outline of a face.

It’s just not happening for Séamus Kirk in these elections. Quiet, placid, self-effacing and a decent man, he was the only Fianna Fáil TD who volunteered to stand for Europe, who didn’t have to have his arm twisted by Bertie or whoever makes the poker plays in FF these days.