Paul Hosford: Has Fianna Fáil spent 10 weeks at odds with itself for nothing?

Party's presidential review offers little in the way of a single killer fact

Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheal speaking to the media at Government Buildings. Picture: Leah Farrell

After 10 weeks, where are we?

Jim Gavin's sensational withdrawal from the presidential election saw Fianna Fáil wrap itself up in an internal fight over the aborted campaign, who was the architect and who knew what and when.

Through weeks of spin and counter-spin, briefing and counter-briefing and a five-hour meeting at which Micheál Martin's leadership was directly questioned, the focus has been on one thing: The report. 

Following that fiery parliamentary party meeting in the days after Mr Gavin's withdrawal, Fianna Fáil agreed the terms of reference of a review, which would revert with specific proposals by November 12.

When that deadline slipped, TDs were furious, but Mr Martin was sanguine, brushing off any question of a delay.

“First of all, it's not delayed,” Mr Martin said, despite the report's own terms of reference saying that the members would revert by November 12.

“I don't accept the concept of a delay. What's basically happening is they're getting on with their work. It'll be complete. It's important that it's done.

“I certainly am not as exercised about it as perhaps others might be," he added in perhaps an understatement of the year.

While the Taoiseach seemed to be totally unbothered by what might and might not be in the report, those who believed that Mr Martin's leadership was in jeopardy wanted to know the answers to key questions; most notably why Jim Gavin? and how did his candidacy fall apart?

The answer to the former remains the most intriguing and, yet, the least answered of the report's 28 pages.

On the day Mr Gavin emerged as Fianna Fáil's candidate in the October election, he took questions from the media on the Merrion Square side of Leinster House. 

In a throng of journalists and parliamentary party members, the former Dublin GAA manager came across as a decent, but particularly unpolished candidate with no real sense of why he wanted to be President or what he would bring to the role and, crucially, lacking any real profile beyond a certain cohort.

"People know me already from sport, from my work in the North-East inner city, from my 20 years serving in Óglaigh na hÉireann. So people know me," he said on that sunny September day in answer to suggestions that people "don't know him from Adam".

"But obviously, I think over the next two months they're going to get to know me better," he added, somewhat presciently.

Jim Gavin speaks to the media and reporters at the Merrion Gate after winning the nomination to became Fianna Fáil's candidate for president. Picture: Eamonn Farrell

The report suggests Mr Martin met with Mr Gavin just once — in July — to discuss his candidacy. What did the Taoiseach see that the country's media — and the public en masse based on polling — did not?

A series of minor missteps — a video on a farm in cream pants, clumsy phrasing around Israel's war on Gaza — came as vicious and unfounded rumours were posted and "forwarded many times". 

But at the same time as those issues, the report confirms, the Taoiseach's chief of staff Deirdre Gillane, director of elections Jack Chambers, and the Fianna Fáil press office were being asked questions about Jim Gavin's former dealings with a tenant.

While some of these were vague and Mr Gavin repeatedly claimed he had no recollection of any such issues, there does not seem to have been any alarm bells ringing in Fianna Fáil heads, which is largely the takeaway from this report and reaffirms what the party has said from the get-go.

In the end, the report offers little in the way of a single killer fact, nothing that would appear at first glance to be fatal to Mr Martin's leadership. Nor does it advance the issue on substantially. Which begs the question; has Fianna Fáil spent ten weeks at odds with itself for nothing?