Election 2024: No sign of The Monk — but the faithful turn out in numbers for Mary Lou

During an upbeat meeting with students, SF president struck a serious note about Gerry Hutch's candidacy, saying of Dublin's gangland conflict: 'It wasn’t glamourous, it is not cool, it is not funny'

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald meeting students at the launch of her party's policy document for young people at DCU on Thursday. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA 

On a bitterly cold evening in Dublin City, as Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch stares out from an election poster high above, a crowd waits for a priest and his holy water.

Not as ominous as it may sound, the people of inner city Dublin are gathered to watch the annual lighting of the Christmas tree.