MURRAY, Gerry SF
THE POLITICAL INTERVIEW
Edwin McGreal edwinmcgreal@mayonews.ie
HE recalls it now and describes it as ‘one of my worst ever decisions’. The decision in question was the one Gerry Murray took to run for the Mayo County Council elections in 1999 as a Fianna Fáil candidate.
He was elected in the Swinford Electoral Area but, by the time the next election came around in 2004, he was standing as a Sinn Féin candidate. He had been approached several times by Fianna Fáil to run in ‘99 before acceding, but when he entered Áras an Chontae, Gerry Murray and Fianna Fáil seemed to be on a perpetual collision course.
“I wasn’t happy in the party, there were a lot of conflicts between the party and myself over a whole range of policies – nationally and locally,” Murray recalls.
It was one issue though which would prove fatal in this dysfunctional relationship. Fianna Fáil, as the majority party in the Council, were behind plans to locate a landfill site in east Mayo. Murray was vehemently opposed.
“It was a major issue in east Mayo and we fought it, won it and we have it now incorporated into the County Development Plan as an objective that no conventional or residual landfill can be located within 13km of Knock Airport,” Murray explains.
It was not altogether a surprise therefore when Murray defected from Fianna Fáil to become the only Sinn Féin member of Mayo County Council in 2001. His political profile has rocketed since.
In 2004 he went back to the people who had elected him as a Fianna Fáil councillor and asked them to vote for him as a Sinn Féin councillor. Such a switch can often backfire but Murray topped the poll in the Swinford Electoral Area, being elected on the first count.
In February 2006, at the Sinn Féin convention, he was chosen as the party’s election candidate in Mayo. As time counts down to the anticipated D-day, Murray is being spoken of as someone very much in the shake-up for one of the Mayo seats. Should he be elected, he would be the first Sinn Féin TD in Mayo since the 1920s.
The move from one party to another was a major one, not just in terms of potentially losing support but, crucially, in terms of ideology. While Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are closely linked in their nationalist outlook relative to the other political parties, their economic policies are poles apart. While for many years the national question dominated the Sinn Féin agenda, Murray admits that the party needs to prove it can be as capable elsewhere.
“There’s a good debate going on inside [the party] on the fact that we have to master the economic question with the same efficiency as we have mastered the nationalist question. We have to master the economic question in the context of offering a sustainable alternative. Our policies have to be sustainable,” says Murray.
The Charlestown-based candidate, who leased his public house over 12 months ago to concentrate fully on his campaign, has the entire constituency to cover, something that has positive and negative aspects. Outgoing TD, Jerry Cowley used it to his advantage last time, being the only candidate to poll a vote in every single polling booth.
But it can work the other way too; people can feel you are spreading yourself too thin across such a big constituency and Murray acknowledges that the approach has to be strategic.
“What we’re doing is we are seeing what is happening in terms of canvass returns. If, for instance, there is a good return in a certain area of Castlebar, I would go back there again. We’d be getting feedback from counters in the main urban areas and we’d also be looking at the returns from the local elections.
“You have to shoot in and get a feel for an area. If there is a good pattern on the canvass you will stay there much longer and if it’s not too positive you might go elsewhere,” Murray explains.
His base is on the Sligo border, on the east of the county in Charlestown, where his immediate opponents are two high-profile candidates, outgoing Fianna Fáil TD John Carty and current Mayo football manager, Fine Gael’s John O’Mahony.
Murray feels that the two typify the approach of politicians in Mayo, basing, as he sees it, their campaigns on personality rather than policy.
“It’s a personalised campaign being run. They are fighting it on the doorsteps as opposed to fighting it in the media and challenging me. We’ve found that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are very reluctant to engage in any form of debate with Sinn Féin in Mayo.
“They’re running scared. I’ve issued numerous statements condemning both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, but none of the candidates have come out so far and disputed anything or challenged me,” continues Murray.
The Sinn Féin party provoke a wide range of emotions. They have their supporters, they have sympathisers and they have vocal detractors. Political drama seems to follow their every move.
“The one thing we don’t provoke is indifference,” smiles Murray. “There would be a degree of hostility. From the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s there was massive censorship in the form of Section 31 where no leading Sinn Féin member was allowed on RTÉ or on any of the broadcast media.
“We were the victims of a vicious propaganda campaign by both the British and Irish governments and we had no right of reply. What you have now in the south is a Section 31 mindset. Our big challenge is to try to decommission that mindset and, by virtue of the fact that our mandate is growing, there is a change.
“For instance Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael senator, said during the 2002 elections that he would never, ever do business with Sinn Féin under any circumstances. Yet, within a matter of weeks, he accosted me on the corridors of Mayo County Council and lobbied me to support him in the Senate elections.”
Gerry Murray’s first ‘claim to fame’ came when he was mentioned in the live version of Christy Moore’s Knock Song where the legendary singer called into Murray’s pub and asked Gerry to explain the story of Knock and Knock Airport. Moore referred to it as ‘The Miracle at Knock’. Sinn Féin getting a Dáil seat in Mayo might have been spoken of in similar terms a decade ago but it doesn’t appear to be as fanciful now.
On the record Gerry Murray on... > a united Ireland “A lot of new policies are coming down the line in terms of an all-Ireland context. Even the DUP and the UUP want an all-Ireland fiscal policy with regard to VAT and excise duty. It’s only a matter of time until Sinn Féin are in government on both sides of the border and that will hugely accelerate Irish unity.”
> Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael “People on the doorsteps cannot figure out what the difference is between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. That’s the problem. People now see us as being distinctive, offering something totally different to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.”
> Christy Moore and the Knock Song “It’s a true story about the song alright. Christy called into me, I know him well and we went up to see the airport. At the time you could drive on the runway and it was literally like looking out to sea, the runway ran all the way to the horizon.”
> securing transfers “A lot will depend on transfers. On the doorsteps people are saying that they can’t give me their number one but they will give me their number two. I’m confident I’ll get transfers.”
> Corrib gas “It’s very significant that all parties in the county are now agreeing with Sinn Féin that the Corrib gas deal has to be re-negotiated. I think Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been very silent and they almost have one eye on public opinion. There’s a battle on for hearts and minds and I suppose Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are more inclined to chase public opinion than trying to change public opinion on the issue.”
> life in politics “You’d be up in the morning doing media work, sorting out issues with canvassers in the different areas, meetings in the afternoon and then might be on the canvass until 11 o’clock at night. It is arduous at times but I’m enjoying the cut and thrust of it.”
> Sinn Féin in Mayo “We’d be targeting a seat. We’d be disappointed if we aren’t fighting for one of the last three seats. There will be a massive increase in the Sinn Féin vote in this county. We’re in the business of building political strength. It’s only a matter of time until Sinn Féin are in government, north and south. It’s only a matter of time until there’s a Sinn Fein TD in Mayo. Hopefully it will be this year.”
> the silence of the opposition “I’d love to have an on-air debate on Mid West Radio but it is a total vindication of our policies that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and all their candidates don’t feel sufficiently confident to come on, take us on and challenge us and engage with us.”
