From Croke Park to Phoenix Park? Jim Gavin has tools for political football 

The GAA's Special Congress on October 4 will be one voting day Jim Gavin has circled in the calendar, could October 23 be another?

If Jim Gavin has a weakness as a presidential candidates, it is his obvious lack of political background. Pic:  Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Speaking in New Ross last Thursday evening, GAA president Jarlath Burns gave some insight into the prospective President of Ireland election candidate Jim Gavin.

Up to early part of this year, Burns had been touted as Sinn Féin’s man to run for the Áras but in opening the John F Kennedy Summer School he was happy to talk about the man he had charged with transforming Gaelic football.

In their early conversations, Burns asked Gavin about his job as the chief operations officer of the Irish Aviation Authority. “He told me, ‘I have to stop what you call the normalisation of deviation. That’s when a culture can emerge when you do something wrong and somebody else does something wrong and nobody stops you doing something wrong.’” 

As far as avoiding unsafe practices go, nominating Gavin to be their candidate to become the next President of Ireland would be up there for Fianna Fáil. “No baggage” has been the phrase associated with the 54-year-old since his name was revealed as their credible potential candidate earlier this week. From Defence Forces to over 20 years of volunteerism, Gavin’s has been a life well led.

“No great association with Fianna Fáil” might be another one, mind. Speaking to party loyalists this past week, he has had little or no involvement with it down through the years. Having said that, it was Taoiseach Micheál Martin who in 2022 announced him as chairman of the Citizens Assembly on appointing a directly-elected mayor of Dublin. Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe was Lord Mayor when Gavin was conferred with the freedom of the city in 2020.

His fellow great football manager Mick O’Dwyer wore his Fianna Fáil colours more prominently. Twice he was close to running as a Fianna Fáil candidate for a Dáil seat in South Kerry. In 1982, a couple of months after the five-in-a-row hopes were dashed, he pulled out of the race insisting “the family must come first”.

Riding high again after completing the three-in-a-row in 1986, he said the cumann didn’t want him to run in the following year’s General Election. On both occasions, Charlie Haughey tried to convince him to put his name forward.

Gavin too has spent plenty of time in the company of a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach. In a 2016 profile of the then Dublin SFC manager in The Irish Times, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern spoke of Gavin’s time piloting the government jet and how they struck up an accord.

“He is an army man through and through,” said Ahern, who has also been associated with running for the presidency. “I used to be minister of state in defence and you know with all army people, discipline and camaraderie is a huge part of it. United team: no hostilities, no enmities. Clear facts. He is not an arrogant kind of person who would give it shouting down a microphone. The facts and analysis would be given but it would stay in-house.” 

It would be myopic to claim Gavin’s appeal is limited to Dublin. He spends a lot of time and given a lot of it to local causes in Clare, the homeplace of his parents, his mother Ann from Moy and late father Jimmy Senior hailing from Cree close to Doonbeg. There would be a deep appreciation for the good he has done his sport as Football Review Committee (FRC) chairman as much as admiration in the likes of Kerry for what he achieved in seven championships, losing just one game.

One person close to the FRC said Gavin’s commitment to the cause was “relentless” and joked for a period he was talking more to Gavin than his wife. Another member this week said: “I have never seen anyone like him. If he does go for it, he will be hard stopped.” 

Going back to his Óglaigh na hÉireann days, Gavin doesn’t sleep much. “I'd look at the email in the morning and see '2.38' and then you'd respond and then the email would be back within half an hour,” his former selector Mick Bohan said in 2018. “And you'd be thinking, 'When does he sleep? Where does the sleep process fit in.” 

Time management and all-round organisation would be assets. He has never forgotten home either. While he lives in Ballyroan in Rathfarnham, about 10km from Clondalkin where he grew up, and Ballyboden St Enda’s is his adopted club where he coaches and his son Jude plays, his allegiance to Round Towers has never dimmed. He has continued to support and promote them and was a speaker at their annual All-Ireland SFC final lunch in Croke Park last month.

If he has a weakness, it is his obvious lack of political background. Gavin is no slouch when it comes to pressing the flesh but can be clinical and occasionally haughty in his utterances.

Nevertheless, his success rate speaks for itself – as Dublin senior football manager, he won 18 of 21 trophies with close to a 92% win rate. On the back of his group’s proposals, football attendances and gate receipts have shot through the roof this past season.

Gavin already has one vote day circled in October when Special Congress convenes in Croke Park on October 4 to decide which of his committee’s rule changes will be made permanent.

That should be a day of success for him. If another follows on October 23, the anticipated day of the presidential election, those who know him best will hardly be surprised.