Candidates singing the same tune 24 years on

MICHEÁL MARTIN will lead Fianna Fáil into the February 2011 general election exactly 24 years after being rejected by the people of Cork South Central at his first attempt for a Dáil seat.

A disappointing 3,619 first preferences saw the young teacher from Turner’s Cross placed eighth out of 16 candidates and eliminated after the sixth count, 14 months after winning a seat on Cork Corporation.

But — apart from the Mr Bean-lookalike mugshot — a glance at Mr Martin’s segment of the FF leaflet that fell into homes across the city’s southside might make you think it was 2011 and not February 1987.