An ill wind as voters’ anger sullies Martin homecoming
They evoke a frivolity, charging bar chats and bookmakers’ odds.
Political gamesmanship stirs tribal one-upmanship.
Yet all it takes is for a moment of grounded humanity to bring even buoyant leaders like Micheál Martin crashing back to earth.
On a day when he enjoyed the giddiest moment of his campaign, the hurt he has to contend with squared up to him in his own city.
The Fianna Fáil leader swept across the Blackwater River into Fermoy for his first visit to his native county since the beginning of the campaign.
The elements, fierce winds and rain were hostile. But in terms of the element of human emotion, Mr Martin was well sheltered among party supporters and the banter of internal rivalries.
Kevin O’Keeffe, the new candidate on the ticket standing for his father’s seat, was on home turf with Michael Ahern, from the south of the constituency, straying into enemy lands.
The O’Keeffe camp was happily discussing the unfounded rumour that Mr Ahern would withdraw his nomination. Mr Ahern was as actively quashing the suggestion.
The O’Keeffe and Ahern arguments are as bitter as anything existing between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
At one stage during the walkabout Mr Ahern was wrong-footed as Mr O’Keeffe whipped his leader through AIB bank, out the side door and down the street.
Then a passenger in a Costigan Memorials’ van warned Mr Martin somebody was whipping down his posters outside the town. Traditional trickery and gimmickry.
Up the road, in Scoil de hÍde, Mr Martin was accosted by students, hyper in the final minutes of the school day and craning their head around the door posts.
They cannot vote, but with a celebrity in their midst Fiona Mhic Gearailt’s sixth class poured onto the corridor for a look.
Sixth class student Chris McGrath pulled out his current affairs scrap book, complete with a page from The Sun which mocked Mr Martin for his attempt to distance himself from the Governments he was a part of.
Asked for an autograph, Mr Martin, well aware of the pitfalls, obliged with his scrawl plastered across his mocked-up martian forehead.
Mr Martin is a polite and pleasant man. People are generally civil and bite their tongues.
A group of mothers stood outside Scoil de hÍde. One urged another to seize her moment. “Say what you are thinking.” She shuffled silently.
But not everybody can keep it in. Two hours later in Blackpool shopping centre Mr Martin walked among shoppers and shook hands with well wishers while canvassing for his candidate, Billy Kelleher.
Giddily he reacted to news that Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had chickened out of the TV3 leaders’ debate.
Predictably Mr Martin sat down to have his picture taken with the statue of his predecessor Jack Lynch. Fianna Fáil’s latest Cork leader would dearly love to latch on to Mr Lynch’s legacy. But in reaching back he cannot leapfrog the recent past.
On the quick walk down the mall to Dunnes Stores the shadow boxing around the leaders debate was exposed by the reality of the issues the leaders have to discuss.
For a moment Mr Martin sat down again to talk to a woman under the gaze of his party colleagues and the media.
An elderly lady was sitting three feet away. She paused. She leaned over. And anger took control.
The lady compared his salary entitlements to that of her children. Her point was well made. Her annoyance boiled to the point where she had to walk off.
Mr Martin went after her. He tried to talk and listen. But the damage was done long before the circus of the election campaign began.
No sooner had Mr Martin turned around when another man, Tim O’Sullivan, asked for a word.
When he spoke the same grief compelled him to share his thoughts.
As he did the reality of the country’s plight overcame him and he listed the names of the worst offenders in Ireland’s sorry decay, Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen and Charlie McCreevy.
“I am sick of all the lies,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
In these moments Mr Martin takes time to stop and accept the criticism. Councillor Kenneth O’Flynn, the son of outgoing deputy Noel O’Flynn, hung back to placate Mr O’Sullivan as the posse moved on.
The Fianna Fáil leader’s arrival into Cork was a triumphant one for his party. But showmanship can do nothing for those to whom the election is but a satellite sideshow spinning in a space free of suffering.
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