Nephew of Dick Spring braced for a battle in North Kerry contituency

Arthur Spring — in his own words — is in a dogfight for North Kerry’s final seat but the nephew of the former Labour leader tells Tony Leen there is still everything to fight for

Dick Spring sent another long, late-night email from New Zealand to his nephew on Monday night. After the rudimentary reminders about local constituency generals, he signed off with a line of vintage, scrapping Spring: Just remember this is always worth fighting for.

The former Labour leader and tánaiste’s absence this past week from Arthur J Spring’s against-the-wind attempt to preserve the family and party’s relevance in Kerry has been seized upon as evidence Dick bailed when he saw the writing on the wall. The truth isn’t so juicy. Dick’s only daughter, Laura, gave birth to his first grandchild, a girl, recently on the south island in New Zealand. Nature doesn’t understand the clock rhythms of the body politic.