O’ Keefe: ‘People have softened towards Fianna Fáil since 2011’

A Fianna Fáil councillor readily admits people will still slam the door in his face when he’s canvassing. But he maintains it’s not as prevalent as it was three years ago — when he tried to retain his father’s former Dáil seat.

“I fought the general election in 2011 when there was fierce negativity against Fianna Fáil. They’d close the door in my face and say there’s no way they’d vote for us. But people have softened since,” said Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe.

In 2011, he was trying to win a seat in the Cork East constituency following the retirement of his outspoken father, Ned.

It went belly up as the party suffered their worst defeat in history.

This time Kevin is fighting to retain his own seat on Cork County Council in the six-seater Fermoy electoral area and is buoyed by what he sees as the Government “playing into Fianna Fáil hands” with the introduction of property tax and water charges.

“The incoming government has had the time to prove themselves and haven’t. There were mistakes made by Fianna Fáil and yes we took our eye off the ball. But we have learnt from that.”

Cllr O’Keeffe was first co-opted onto the county council in 1997 and everybody knows “Kevin”.

“Local elections are different, they’re about personalities rather than parties,” he said.

That was borne a out in a number of cases when the Irish Examiner accompanied him on a canvass around Fermoy.

Dave Magnier, a retired man, makes his way across the street to the 50-year-old politician.

“My family always voted FF. I know Kevin well and to be honest it’s more about Kevin than the party,” said Mr Magnie.

“I certainly won’t be voting for Fine Gael after the water charges and property tax.”

Con Shasby gives Kevin a firm handshake outside the local Centra supermarket. “I always voted FF. I think they have learnt their lesson,” he said.

He then meets Sadie Burke, someone he also knows well.

Sadie, who works in the local youth centre, said she’s been a floating voter for the past 20 years, but will go in the Fianna Fáil direction this time.

“Everybody deserves a second chance,” she said.

More people say they’ll give him a vote and seem genuine about it.

But then he meets Noreen Cahill from nearby Ballyhooly. She’s drowned out by Deirdre Clune’s passing bandwagon of Euro-election buses.

Anyway Kevin’s request falls on deaf ears as Noreen is dyed-in-the-wool Fine Gael.

“Fine Gael got landed with a poison chalice after them [FF]. People forget very quickly who landed this country in the soup,” said Noreen.

Another Fine Gael voter, who declined to be named, said Kevin was a likeable person who would probably get a few votes off FG supporters.

“Politics is local. In many cases it doesn’t matter about the parties, it’s down to the personalities. That’s why he’ll get elected,” the man added.