Micro-managed Mulherin’s vote

SHOW OF SUPPORT  Ballina’s Cllr Michelle Mulherin pictured at the launch of her election campaign on Friday night last with her party leader, Enda Kenny, fellow FG candidate, John O’Mahony and Master of Ceremonies for the evening, JJ O’Hara.

Mulherin’s vote must be micro-managed

Áine Ryan

THE rally to the troops should have caused a minor earthquake in north Mayo last Friday night. Conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for Cllr Michelle Mulherin’s launch of her campaign to become the first female Fine Gael TD in Mayo. It was more Mediterranean than Mayo as stalwarts gathered from all over the county – and, apparently, beyond – at Jordan’s pub on Station Road.
Unquestionably, the frisson of excitement that tickled the room was related to the publication of the Irish Times TNS/mrbi poll earlier that day showing clear signs of the Fine Gael-Labour partnership nosing ahead of the present Government of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. The fact that the man at the helm of this tentative surge in support – and whose increased confidence underpins a trend towards the party that commentators have all but been flabbergasted by in recent weeks – was en route from Dingle was the icing on the cake.
What perfect timing for solicitor Michelle Mulherin. “She doesn’t have to convince us though. It’s the floating vote,” said Chairman of the Ballina Area Executive, Ignatius Dunleavy.
But there was also an important addendum that was repeated by speaker after speaker. It was the delicate subject of ‘vote-management’. Earlier in the week analysis of  The Mayo News poll had clearly spelt out the need for micro-management of a vote that gave 51 per cent of the poll to Fine Gael but still only managed to elect two candidates, Enda Kenny and Michael Ring.
“The opinion polls in Mayo are especially good for Fine Gael but unfortunately they are concentrating on two sitting TDs. What we need for this election is some vote-management, which will give us what we want, three sitting TDs,” said Mr Dunleavy.
“Around the county they’re saying there’s a mood for change. We don’t need change, because we don’t have anyone [representing us],” added Mr Dunleavy, to rousing applause and cheers.
This was supported by the Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Gerry Coyle. He referred to local Fianna Fáil candidate, Dara Calleary’s roadside posters which state: “‘We will put Mayo back on the map’. Well, I have a question: who took Mayo off the map in the first place?”
“And I have a message for Tom Parlon about decentralisation. After this election the Taoiseach’s office will be decentralised to Castlebar,” said Cllr Coyle.
Embracing the ‘electric’ atmosphere, Michelle Mulherin acknowledged what a great learning curve her membership of  Ballina Town Council and Mayo County Council had provided.
“It’s been a great help being at the coalface and dealing with the roads, the pot-holes, the Corrib gas issues, health, climate change,” said Cllr Mulherin, outlining her vast experience on the Council’s Roads and Transportation Committee.   
“We’re rural Ireland and we’ve got road rage,” she said to rapturous applause and cheering.
This was nothing to the cheer the Taoiseach-in-waiting got on his arrival.
“I want one message to go out to the people of this town, to north Mayo, to the whole county tonight: you are about to make the most important political decisions you have ever made,” said Enda Kenny.
The alternatives: the possibility of a Minister of State ‘for something or other’, or the reality of a leader of Government, a Mayo Taoiseach.