Rise and fall of Gallagher's hopes

Former frontrunner Seán Gallagher’s links to Fianna Fáil ultimately saw his hopes of becoming president go the same way as the Celtic Tiger – boom to bust.

Surprising everyone, perhaps even himself, the 'Dragons Den' star had soared dramatically in the opinion polls during the last stage of the race into a seemingly unassailable lead.

But then came the crash – and there was no soft landing.

Allegations about involvement in fundraising for his former party as well as questions over his business dealings rocked his campaign.

The claims levelled at him by Martin McGuinness during sensational exchanges on a final television debate on RTE’s Frontline proved to be the defining moment of the presidential battle.

It was also one of the most electrifying public political plunges in recent times. A nation gasped.

His initial dismissal of the allegations on live television, then later admission that he may have been handed a €5,000 cheque from a convicted tax cheat and oil smuggler evoked memories of politics scarred by brown envelopes and mature recollections.

Later still, he would deny it again in interviews the following day.

But coming just days before voters went to the polls, it was too late for the avowed Independent to distance himself from the toxic Fianna Fáil brand and his fate was sealed.

The spiralling loss of public confidence in Mr Gallagher was as quick and unexpected as was his surge in the popularity stakes just days beforehand.

Unanswered questions about the legality of a loan, paid to himself by one of his companies, and issues over the State funding of some of his enterprises compounded his woes.

His suggestion that Glenna Lynch, an audience member who quizzed him during the Frontline debate, was a political plant also backfired.

She was forced to publicly defend herself as a married mother-of-three with no political connections.

Mr Gallagher was on the ropes.

The 49-year-old former aerobics instructor and massage therapist had kneaded his way into the psyche of a country much in need of soothing with a reassuring mantra of positivity, growth and renewal.

A co-founder of a home technology company which took off during the property bubble years, he vowed to channel his entrepreneurial spirit as well as his background in community and disability organisations towards getting Ireland back to work.

“What I want to do for the economy is what Mary McAleese did for the peace process during her presidency,” he said.

The measure of his mettle was not in doubt.

Born with congenital cataracts and virtually blind as a child, he regained partial sight after pioneering corrective surgery.

Mr Gallagher’s inspirational tale had even appeared in a collection of stories some years ago about against-the-odds entrepreneurs called 'That’ll Never Work'.

Donning judo gear and showing off his black belt skills during canvassing cast him as the younger, more energetic candidate against the elder ambitions of his closest rival Michael D Higgins.

Intimations he wanted to be the first president to have babies in Áras an Úachtaráin – he married former cosmetics saleswoman Trish O’Connor last year - did not do his campaign any harm either among softer-hearted voters.

But in the end, Mr Gallagher could not shake off the ghosts of his “sporadic” Fianna Fáil past, as he put it.

It was not his seat on the party’s ruling national executive or his work helping Fianna Fáil TDs get elected that undid him, despite his insistence he was wholly non-political.

The perception of his entanglement in the seedier side of the former ruling party’s fundraising activities, and its role in the country’s economic crash, proved fatal.

In the end, public confidence in the 'Dragons Den' celebrity’s pitch plummeted and they declared: “We’re out.”