FF feud descends into open warfare

A BITTER feud between rival Fianna Fáil candidates has descended into open warfare just hours before the start of polling.

The outgoing candidates in Cork East, Ned O’Keefe and Michael Ahern, accused each other of failing constituents at their own doorstep.

Nostrils flared in recent days over an advert placed in the Avondhu newspaper.

The newspaper is based in Mr O’Keefe’s heartland of north Cork and the advert asked voters to forget about geography and vote for the southern candidate Michael Ahern.

Junior minister Ahern admitted his team had placed the ad and said traditional boundaries meant nothing in this election.

“Deputy O’Keefe, or should I say Mr O’Keefe because he is not elected yet, should worry about his own campaign.

“At the last election there was a boundary in place which he broke lock, stock and barrel right up to my doorstep. This time there is no boundary so it is open territory,” he said.

Councillor Frank O’Flynn, a loyal member of Mr Ahern’s campaign team, said the ad was in retaliation for Mr O’Keefe’s canvassing tactics.

“He is going around the place telling people to vote ‘One Ned O’Keefe, Two Sinn Féin’, that is not playing ball,” he said.

Mr O’Keefe denies this and said he has never advocated a vote for Sinn Féin.

He criticised Mr Ahern’s track record and said his promotion to junior minister should have been used to better effect.

“If I had five years as a minister, people working for me and a car given to me I would have this place buzzing. We would be fighting for three seats not trying to hold onto two.

“People are laughing that we now have a seat at risk. All he [Mr Ahern] can speak about is sports’ and lottery grants when there is jobs being lost in his own end of the constituency,” he said.

In recent days he wrote to constituents in Youghal saying he did not support the investment policy of the Department of Enterprise where Mr Ahern was serving as a junior minister.

He claims the Government had failed to bring adequate investment to the east of the constituency.

Mr Ahern said his party colleague is forgetting about the investment in his own patch and towns like Mitchelstown.

He feels some of the techniques used by the O’Keefe campaign at the doorstep amount to slander.

“I have heard some of the comments he has been saying and if I was different I would be bringing him to court.

“I won’t be taking any action but with what people have been ringing me with I would be within my rights,” he said.

The spat serves to highlight the bitter struggles between the north and the south of the constituency a week after Sean Sherlock and John Mulvihill clashed in the Labour Party.