Billy Kelleher's strong support can't be counted as votes against Micheál Martin

Cork MEP had a strong showing in his bid for the Fianna Fáil presidential election nod. But, as the Taoiseach said, the referendum on Martin's leadership was the last general election

Ireland South MEP Billy Kelleher speaking to the media outside Leinster House in Dublin after his bid to be the Fianna Fáil presidential candidate. Mr Kelleher had a strong showing, winning 29 votes compared to Jim Gavin's 41. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

As Micheál Martin stepped among the throng of journalists, broadcasters, and parliamentary party members gathered at the Merrion Street gates of Leinster House, a veteran political journalist asked if the Taoiseach was “wounded”.

In the wake of what was a victory for the party leader — his favoured candidate Jim Gavin had been named the Fianna Fáil nominee just an hour earlier — Mr Martin was fending off a question about how his leadership may be weakened after a decade and a half at the helm of the party.

The fact that 40% of the parliamentary party had gone against the leadership’s choice and backed long-term parliamentary party member Billy Kelleher was seen by some as a serious blow to Mr Martin’s continued leadership of the party.

But was it?

Were votes for Kelleher votes against Martin? 

The suggestion has been made in the last few weeks that the trickle of TDs and senators backing Mr Gavin’s campaign was a bad sign for the leader, that it signified either a party slow to embrace an outsider, or slow to embrace the candidate himself.

By Tuesday morning, Jim Gavin had 32 public backers, with 36 needed for a majority.

In Mr Kelleher’s camp, they were certain of 23, hopeful of 27.

A supporter had said that in the moments before the vote, Mr Kelleher still had a path to victory, but would have needed every single outstanding voter to back him, an unlikely occurrence.

The fact that Mr Kelleher — whose insurgent campaign only really kicked off in an August vacuum — could still claim to be in with a shout 20 minutes before the vote was an achievement in and of itself.

Billy Kelleher's long parliamentary career

The result of the vote itself was a higher water mark than Mr Kelleher’s supporters had hoped for, but it does not, in and of itself, fire the starting gun on the race to oust Mr Martin.

Granted, there are undoubtedly some in the party’s ranks who voted for Mr Kelleher with some extra relish because they felt it could give the leader a bloody nose, but the idea that 29 Fianna Fáil parliamentary party members backed Mr Kelleher purely to hurt the leader is somewhat simplistic.

Mr Kelleher is a long-time member of the parliamentary party who, despite his Brussels base, is a self-described “Fianna Fáil man through and through” and many who voted for him would have been supported or mentored at different stages of their own political careers.

A well-liked colleague

The Ireland South MEP is well-liked by many and played a key role in the party’s recovery from its 2011 electoral shellacking.

There were many who said that their support for Mr Kelleher was “more about Billy than Micheál”.

Meanwhile, former Dublin football boss, Jim Gavin faced the media himself after his victory. His positions on social issues have been largely unknown since his entry into the race two weeks ago, but he said he had voted in favour of both the marriage equality and abortion rights referendums.

"I see myself as a centrist. I’m a constitutional Republican. 

On Repeal the Eighth, it was a difficult moral decision for the country, but ultimately became about women’s rights. And what was right for women and the right to choose. 

“In terms of marriage equality, I’m all for equality. I think Ireland sent a very strong signal out that we’re a progressive nation and we’re inclusive and we respect all, so I voted yes.”

It was the media’s first engagement with the man who might be president and, while he avoided any own goals, the questions came about whether Mr Martin’s leadership was damaged.

There is no question that Mr Martin’s time as leader is closer to the end that it is the beginning — that is just a fact of the march of time — and he may opt to walk away from politics at any point in the coming years, perhaps when he rotates out of the Taoiseach’s office in a little over two years, perhaps before the next general election.

But is Mr Martin wounded? Is he in danger? Was this a referendum on his future? Mr Martin had one answer to all of those questions and pointed to a recent electoral success.

“We had a referendum on the leadership. It was less than a year ago. It was called the general election,” he said.