'Micheál, straight on': Tánaiste glides through the Niamh Smyth show in Cavan/Monaghan
Tánaiste Micheal Martin (right) with local candidate Niamh Smyth (left) at the weekly mart in Ballyjamesduff. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA
I f Micheál Martin was looking for a gentle palate cleanser, after his late night debating nine other political minds on the television, Ballyjamesduff was happy to oblige.
The Fianna Fáil leader arrived in town in time for the weekly cattle mart, and seemed none the worse for wear for his debate experience.
In truth, the morning’s events were very much the Niamh Smyth show, the local TD who came to public notice in the summer of 2023 as chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee during the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.
Ms Smyth is a canny political operative, and has a serious ground game. More than 10 of her canvassing team were present, resplendent in Fianna Fáil orange and green letterman jackets. The TD herself was head to toe in bottle green, including a striking pair of Dolce and Gabbana trainers.
For two hours she never stopped smiling and pressing the flesh, with not even a difficult question from a local reporter — as to whether or not Fianna Fáil’s strategy for its three local candidates in Cavan/Monaghan really is every man/woman for him/herself — fazing her.
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Fianna Fáil currently holds two — the other belonging to Brendan Smith — of the five seats in the Cavan/Monaghan constituency, and is running a third candidate this time round in the guise of senator Robbie Gallagher.
Tuesday morning was very definitely the Smyth show however. Ms Smyth and the Tánaiste started their morning at the town’s weekly cattle mart, with curious cows and farmers alike staring balefully at the political circus as it wound its way through the complex.
“Micheál, straight on,” yelled Ms Smyth, in a manner not entirely dissimilar to the men guiding the prize heifers for sale around the market ring.
The Tánaiste stopped for a chat with the mart’s manager John Tevlin after his mini-tour. He was told that Ballyjamesduff needs “more of the stable Government we’ve had the last five years”, and that agricultural prices just now aren’t too bad, all things considered.
“We were down with him ourselves, you know,” Mr Tevlin said of a recent Ballyjamesduff Mart excursion to Cork. Micheál is on the return leg it seems.
The quiet appreciation of the incumbent Government is reflected in almost every visit the Tánaiste and his entourage makes. Ms Smyth is well-acquainted with the local businesses and their owners and it shows.
The average bungee-drop into each establishment lasted about 30 seconds, just enough time for ‘hi, bye, and thanks a million’. Canvassing a general election is a hectic occupation.
“There’s enough of ye anyway,” said a slightly bemused looking Rodney Dolan, owner of the town’s Centra, during his own visit from Hurricane Micheál. “Handy if ye get lost,” he quipped.
Only one naysayer was to be found on the route, a man with a beard who followed the crowd from the mart shouting unprintables at the Tánaiste regarding abortion along with a slightly incongruous ‘Free Enoch Burke!’.
To that effect, it feels like Ballyjamesduff — a town of just under 3,000 people, a substantial proportion of whom were born outside Ireland — is a refuge from some of the more toxic social issues seen elsewhere in rural Ireland nowadays.
“We’re a unique town in Cavan, a cultural melting point, a huge influx of different nationalities, different ethnicities — the one thing that works is that everyone gels, and everyone works well together,” Karl McCartin, principal of the local St Clare’s national school, said.
Ballyjamesduff has seen a great deal of investment from the State locally in recent years, and would happily see the trend continue.
If that means more Fianna Fáil — with maybe even some more Fine Gael, as outgoing TD and Minister Heather Humphreys is referenced approvingly on more than one occasion — then the local business leaders won’t be complaining too much it seems.
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