Soldiers of Destiny deploy military gear for poll battle

Armoured cars and tanks and guns... here the Fianna Fáil warwagon comes.

There’s something militaristic stirring among the aptly named ‘Soldiers of Destiny’ candidates in the Rebel county.

One hopeful has referenced ‘boots on the ground’ in his election literature — the term used to describe the deployment of US troops on the desert sands of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The other, meanwhile, has commandeered a piece of machinery once used by the German army.

Local councillor Kevin O’Keeffe, who is running as a candidate in Cork East, has defended his use of the GIs’ boots in his election literature.

“The concept came before Christmas with the crisis in the Middle East,” said Mr O’Keeffe. “What I’m trying to say is that we have no real political boots on the ground in Cork East and I’m hoping to redress this with my boots on the ground here [the constituency].”

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His poster was criticised by Youghal-based councillor Mary Linehan-Foley — a former Soldier of Destiny who defected to the Independents — and is an election candidate in the same constituency.

She said Mr O’Keeffe should have used pictures of Irish soldiers’ boots to show their contribution to peace-keeping all over the world.

“Many people have suffered in Co Cork from flooding. Maybe he should be using wellington boots on the ground instead,” she said.

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Meanwhile, Margaret Murphy-O’Mahony, who is running in Cork South-West, has rolled out a Cold War-era German army truck which she acquired from a Bandon collector.

She said she had one look at it and had to have it, because it was unusual and “sums up my fighting spirit for this constituency”.

“I just couldn’t resist the chance of using it,” she said. “Okay, if I could have got the use of an Irish historical vehicle like Sliabh na mBan I would, but that was out of the question.

“I’m so fired up I feel that I could die fighting for the people of Cork South-West.”

Some observers are wondering if Fianna Fáil is trying to put out a subliminal message in the year that’s in it that it was its lads and lasses who really won the War of Independence.

A shot across the bows of Sinn Féin, so?

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