Die-hard campaigner takes his support for Michael Healy-Rae all way to the grave

As the saying goes, there are no dead certainties in politics. Well, maybe one.

At a funeral in the Healy- Rae dynasty’s heartland in recent days, one long-standing campaigner showed his die-hard support for the controversial Kerry family by taking the election race all the way to the grave.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner in a wide-ranging interview on the campaign and his family’s high-profile ‘Kerry first, country second’ focus, Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said even the untimely passing of an elderly friend and long-time canvasser didn’t stop the quest for votes to take him back to the Dáil.

“I had to go to Waterville [on the Iveragh peninsula in Kerry] because a friend of mine Danny O’Mahony died,” he said. “He was 85, a great campaigner for us, a warrior and a very nice man.

“When he was laid out inside the coffin last night [Sunday], his family put a canvass card for me up in his hand, between his fingers, so everybody who came in, he was canvassing them for me.

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“Even though the poor man was gone to his eternal walk, he was still working. It was very touching.”

While even the dead seem ready to vote for the latest holder of the Healy-Rae dynasty crown, the colourful candidate himself is reluctant to believe he is safely over the line.

However, should he be elected in little over two weeks, the son of the late Jackie Healy-Rae has suggested he may be open to repeating another of his father’s controversial political moves by not ruling out a deal with whatever coalition seeks power — if they need support and can give Kerry a reason to provide it.

“If it was good for Kerry anything would be a possibility. Employment, infrastructure, broadband, things like that would have to be addressed,” he said.

While Mr Healy-Rae has admitted such a deal would be criticised by those outside the county, he said such opposition would be confined to people “looking down their nose”.

In the kingdom of Kerry and the kingdom of heaven, he says, there is undying support — both in this life and the next.

“We have people out canvassing with us who have been canvassing for us since 1973. Every election. Sure didn’t I tell you, they’re still canvassing when they’re dead, never mind alive.”

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