Babies, bailouts and bluster as Eamon drops the J-word

BUTCHERS, babies, bailouts and bluster.

It was all along the trail for quietly spoken Eamon Gilmore this week as his eager election team took him on lightning visits with their red-car convoy through six constituencies in three days.

By yesterday morning, in Denis Cronin’s butchers in Killarney, the Labour leader had reached for the knives, referring to party plans to overhaul the EU bailout.

“This is the scalpel alright,” he joked as opposed to the axe being taken to the Irish economy under the current deal.

But for local Mary Murphy and her family, any economic recovery would come too late. Her brother’s architecture firm, where she had worked as a secretary for 17 years, was closing.

“It’s sad to see it close down,” the 52-year-old mother-of-one told the party leader who promised the J-word (jobs), a priority for Labour.

Later in Killarney, the sort of pace and flash his election pack wanted to bring to Irish towns was having its desired effect.

“We thought you were a movie star,” one female shopper said laughing as Eamon reached for voters’ hands on High Street.

At a young entrepreneur exhibition at the Brandon Hotel, Eamon was struck by young student Laura O’Sullivan’s ‘socklock’ product, a €4 velcro clip to keep babies socks on. The party leader even posed for pictures with a baby doll.

But former party leader Dick Spring, campaigning locally for his son Arthur, even had difficulty keeping up with Eamon.

“I’m older than you, hold up there,” said the former tánaiste on the party leader’s trail.

At one stage, Eamon even reached into a car window to give a red setter dog a hug and shake the owner’s hand.

“If Fine Gael have a dog, so can we,” joked Dick Spring, catching up.

But the jokes stopped at the Mall Tavern, where local mother-of-six Anne Casey explained that two of her children faced having to emigrate. Tralee has over 6,000 unemployed people. Daughter, Siobhán Casey, 23, sipping tea with her mum told Eamon that after completing a masters in librarianship, she could not get work.

“It will get better, it won’t take 10 years,” the Labour leader said, gripping the young postgraduate’s hand and pledging to partly lift the public service embargo.

Heading onto Portlaoise, where Labour have had no seat for 20 years, the party leader received less of a welcome though.

Besides the ‘maybes’ and ‘I’ll see about ye’, one disgruntled man yelled after the hurrying party leader as he dashed through the windy town: “You’ve more of a chance of getting pregnant than getting a vote from me.”

A lot done, more to do then for Eamon and his busy election team.