McEllistrim battling for Dáil survival

STILL wearing his overcoat and leaning forward on a chair in his somewhat chilly constituency office in Tralee town centre, battle-hardened TD Martin Ferris shakes his head and reveals that he has never before experienced a reaction quite like what he is encountering on the doorsteps.

He describes himself as a tough political street-fighter but concedes that nothing could have prepared him for the sight of grown men and women standing weeping at their own front doors because they have no work, no money and no hope.

“It’s a very painful canvass and there are so many people visibly hurting. They are breaking down on the doorsteps because they have lost their jobs, they are losing their children to emigration and they have nothing, absolutely nothing to spend,” he said.