Fergus Finlay: I have no sympathy for Jim Gavin — the whole thing was grubby

This tawdry mess is throwing a cloud over the office of the presidency, and now our choices are unacceptably narrow 

Micheál Martin (left) with Jim Gavin at the launch of Mr Gavin's presidential campaign. Fianna Fáil has let the country down badly in making such a mess of approaching this election. But it’s still an election that matters. And it’s still entirely in our own hands. File photo: Leah Farrell/©Rollingnnews.ie

On the one hand, haven’t I told ye right from the beginning how tough and unpredictable a presidential election is? Brace yourselves, I’ve always said. You just never know. 

In the middle of September I wrote here that this year’s election would be about character, not ideology, and that we’d be watching people grow or shrink as the campaign went on. It didn’t take a genius to see that Jim Gavin was getting smaller and smaller in the harsh glare of a Presidential spotlight.