Constituency profile: Dublin Bay North

Showers are blowing in from the estuary and the wind-chill factor has the brass monkeys scurrying for cover. It’s early afternoon in the village of Baldoyle, north Dublin, and it is to here that Deirdre Heney is coming to tie down a few number ones.

Heney is one of two Fianna Fáil candidates in the new sprawling constituency of Dublin Bay North. Like others around the country who have found themselves ploughing fresh fields under the redrawn constituencies, Heney is a newbie round these parts. She is a councillor of 17 years’ standing, but Baldoyle isn’t even in the same local authority — Dublin City — where she serves.

Nobody said it would be easy, but the task at hand is even more daunting under the prevailing conditions.

“This shouldn’t be allowed,” Heney shivers on the threshold of her first doorstep of the afternoon. “Summer is the best time for elections.”

The canvass kicks off on a street of cottages, redolent of Baldoyle in the rare old times. Heney introduces herself and passes on her leaflet.

“Do you recognise me?” she asks the elderly householder.

“I do,” the woman replies, holding up the leaflet. “I’ll enjoy reading this and I’ll give you a vote.”

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE

“A number one would be appreciated,” Heney says.

The woman looks again at the leaflet, as if her ultimate decision might be divined from the presentation of details. “I’ll see,” she says.

The exchange is repeated at a number of doors. Most respondents are non-committal, unfailingly polite, yet cagey. Heney herself demonstrates a persistence each time in attempting to tie down the number one.

Persistence is what got her on the Fianna Fáil ticket in a wide area known for male, big-beast operators. Between the two amalgamated constituencies, the party held four out of six seats up until the 2011 general election. Among the standard-bearers were the likes of former minister Michael Woods, the bould Ivor Callely, and, of course, Sean Haughey with all his family history.

Enda Kenny needs to stick to his 'recovery' story to get elected https://t.co/U4XIK1a5nG (SN) #ge16 pic.twitter.com/5Yir3MeMBY

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 9, 2016

Heney first stood in 2002, but took a step back in the following two elections to give the big beasts a clear run. Now, she feels, her time has come, a sentiment shared with the majority of party members in Dublin Bay North. At the selection convention last June, she defeated Haughey, who had been a hot favourite to get the nod. Thereafter, the party HQ, which had indicated it wanted just one candidate for the constituency, added Haughey to the ticket. The most that Fianna Fáil can realistically hope for in Dublin Bay North is one seat.

Heney is talking at another doorstep. Here, she asks the elderly householder about dementia. A long conversation follows, most of it driven by the candidate. She explains that while she has not had experience of the condition in her own family, it is something she encounters all the time and has taken its treatment on board as a personal issue.

Her local canvasser, Tim Maher, has gone on ahead, had a few doors opened, and is waiting for Heney, but she is in no hurry to catch up. While she has a interest in the subject, she is also doing the hard yards, out there many miles from her base, where she needs to make new connections.

“It’s a huge social issue,” she says as she leaves the woman and moves on. At each door, she engages easily, even when the respondent shows no inclination to return the interest. A young man answers another door with a dog in his arms. He doesn’t vote.

“Are you registered?” Heney asks.

“I’ve been meaning to do that.”

“Today is that last day,” she tells him.

He shows no urgency. She reaches in and pets the dog. The dog growls. She laughs and moves on.

She was put out when HQ added Haughey to the ticket, and made her feelings known in the media at the time.

“Nobody expected me to win,” she shrugs, referencing the party hierarchy. “Everybody was quite shocked.”

Naturally, she likes to portray herself as the outsider taking on HQ at the behest of the local organisation’s franchise. Yet she does have friends in places that were once high in the party hierarchy. She once worked as an adviser to Noel Ahern, and Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra mafia certainly were close to her politically.

Have they been of assistance in this campaign?

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE

“Not out canvassing,” she says, “but they have been helpful.

Bernard Harrington has a big welcome for Heney at his doorstep. He is a party member, but that doesn’t mean she has his vote in the bag.

“Have you decided yet?” she asks.

“No, not yet,” he says.

Maybe it’s the presence of the media but Bernard isn’t going to make public which of the candidates will get his number one.

“There’s a long way to go yet,” he says, as if he hasn’t made up his mind.

There certainly is a long way to go in this constituency, as there are at least 23 candidates vying for the five seats, including five sitting TDs. As far as the two Fianna Fáil candidates are concerned, it appears to come down to which is ahead on the first count. Or maybe not.

The canvass has moved on to three-bed-semi territory, and a woman who only gives her name as Cora opens a door.

“I don’t normally vote Fianna Fáil, but I will consider you,” she says.

Heney discovers that Cora is generally a Fine Gael voter. She tries a little gentle persuading but there’s no give. They move on to to discuss a local issue around lighting and footpaths. She takes the woman’s number, even though the area is not even in her local authority. The conversation continues. Poor Tim has gone down the road foraging for number ones but is now back.

Heney finally bids farewell and gets back on the trail, eking out the hard yards, living on dreams of being hoisted high in the RDS when the results come in.

Long-time councillor Deirdre Heney is hoping to succeed in the competitive Dublin Bay North constituency, says Michael Clifford