Presidential election - Gallagher’s lead seems unassailable

LAST February Fianna Fáil and the Greens felt the wrath of an angry and vengeful electorate. Both parties were decimated and their survival, not to mention their relevance, remains in question.

If the latest Sunday Business Post opinion poll on the presidential election is made real at the polls on Thursday week, then Fine Gael will, in the space of just eight months, have experienced great success followed by a failure on a par with that inflicted on their Government predecessors.

In the general election, Enda Kenny’s party won 25 extra seats and an impressive 36% of the vote. In last week’s poll their Áras candidate Gay Mitchell, at 8%, attracted less than a quarter of that support.