Local and Vocal candidate vows to emerge from the FG shadows
ACCORDING to beleaguered Fine Gael by-election candidate Verona Murphy, it’s ‘full steam ahead’ for her General Election campaign which she says she will ‘absolutely’ be contesting, but reports from inside the party suggest she may be going it alone if she is to run in 2020.
Murphy finished up in third place on Saturday night having been leapfrogged by Labour’s George Lawlor by 71 votes following the distribution of Sinn Fein candidate Johnny Mythen’s transfers. She finished up with 10,836 votes, having secured 23 per cent of first preference votes following her eight week campaign which is estimated to have cost over €100,000.
Shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday Murphy arrived in St Joseph’s count centre, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan by her side. He had been by her side when she visited an Emergency Reception and Orientation Centre in Dungarvan after comments she made about asylum seekers needing to be deprogrammed, and was on her campaign team’s blitz of Wexford town for votes on the Saturday before the election.
Dressed all in black in leather jacket, leather boots and jet black pants, Murphy winked as the media cameras flashed. She moved to the corner of the count centre - a sports hall – but the battle-weary Fine Gael newbie wasn’t in the mood to hop the ball with the waiting press.
Minister Flanagan convened an impromptu meeting in the corner. Opposite the Fine Gael camp the voting pigeon holes were stuffed disproportionately with Fianna Fail votes.
‘Has he a string on her. Is she a child or what?’ one onlooker observed.
A serious pow wow was under way and it was all smiles in the Fine Gael camp, Avril Doyle acknowledging that it was all but over, Paul Kehoe and Michael D’Arcy Jnr keeping a safe distance.
Murphy said she was happy with her vote and when tackled by the media she was defiant, saying she had increased the Fine Gael vote in Co Wexford.
The local Fine Gael party was clearly split on Murphy, Kehoe and D’Arcy seeing her as a threat in next year’s General Election. ‘There is such a thing as bad publicity and what she said won’t be forgotten,’ a Fine Gael insider said.
One of her team conceded: ‘It was a long shot from the start; it was always going to be. When you see the global results across the four by-elections this vote is reflective of that.’
Early indications were that it was Fianna Fáil candidate Malcolm Byrne’s seat to lose.
A Fine Gael party source said: ‘She did OK. We are fighting it out. It’s difficult to see. 8,700 odd first preference votes is respectable. Nine months later more people will be turning up and it will be a different conversation. But if she gets caught (by Lawlor) it’s her own fault and I think that would be a game changer for her.’
Another party member believed she was too big to be dropped: ‘She can’t be dropped now. She’s got too big of a vote. Paul Kehoe will be in the middle and he will be feeling a little squeezed. They can’t ditch her now. They’d be destroyed if she went Independent.’
The belief is that she lost some first preference votes among middle class voters, and gained votes in country areas following her comments that drink driving laws had decimated rural areas. Notably, she didn’t pick up many votes in Bree where Deputy Kehoe is based or in Clonroche.
Along the roads into Wexford Murphy posters called on voters to give Wexford two TDs something several bystanders take issue with. ‘She has posters in New Ross telling people in the town to vote for one of their own. She lives in Ramsgrange!’
Several party insiders described her comments as stupid and foolish but Minister Flanagan was supportive, even sanguine about Murphy’s political future, saying she was new to politics and had been through a turbulent campaign. He said: ‘The Fine Gael campaign in particular experienced some difficulties. Verona Murphy apologised for unacceptable comments on her part during the course of the campaign.’
He said he accepted her apology as her director of elections, adding that it wasn’t fair to define any one candidate on a single issue. Mr Flanagan said she wasn’t used to the rough and tumble of a political campaign and denied that she was the subject of a character assassination as she claimed in a video posted to her Facebook page on Thursday.
‘Malcolm Byrne was hot favourite and after the tallies he is still hot favourite. I am pleased with how Fine Gael has done here. We are up by around 1 per cent on the General Election. Verona is a first-time candidate and she did more than hold the Fine Gael vote, unlike in the other by-elections. This was a constituency where we had two TDs.’
Minister Flanagan said Murphy is still on the ticket for the General Election. ‘This was a good result. She has been selected as a candidate,’ he insisted
When surrounded by media in the hall corner at 4 p.m. Verona Murphy gave a statement in which she described the by-election campaign as a learning curve. When tackled on her belief in her comments on migrants, she said she has already apologised for her remarks.
Murphy was all apologies throughout the day, saying she had already apologised for her comments.
Following her elimination, surrounded by the press, she described the by-election campaign as a building block for the general, pointing out that she was up against two experienced campaigners in Malcolm Byrne and George Lawlor.
When pressed as to whether she had the full support of Fine Gael or if she’d consider running as an independent, she shut the questions down saying: ‘That’s a matter for another day,’ before turning on her heels and retreating.
Speaking to this newspaper afterwards, she said she was absolutely exhausted mentally after being in a media firestorm the previous week, but was energised by the vote she received.
‘I am absolutely enamoured by the people of Wexford. If it was a General Election I would have won a seat. I am looking forward to May and will be hitting the ground full steam ahead on Monday.’
She said she was within such a close field in the election.
‘This was a first showing from me. My campaign has been ongoing since April and it has been a learning curve. It has been a very enjoyable experience,’ she said, up until the final fortnight of the campaign.
She thanked her campaign manager Cyril Barden and her team – including her daughter Robyn – for their support, adding that they have been out with her in all kinds of weather.
‘I am looking forward to May. The reality is that the people of Wexford have had their say. I think what is important now is that the issues of Brexit and Rosslare Europort – which are badly misunderstood by the other candidates who have their facts all wrong – need to be advanced.’
She said Rosslare Europort has the potential to create jobs for the people of Co Wexford, adding that she will be making representations for all the people who have highlighted their issues to her on the doorsteps over recent weeks.
Murphy said unlike the other candidates she can bring a business approach to politics.
She said she is looking forward to gaining a better understanding of the issues affecting Co Wexford. ‘From Monday morning on it’s full steam ahead.’
Malcolm Byrne said Murphy’s comments were shameful, adding that he wants to engage on issues like housing and homelessness.
George Lawlor, who is Mayor of Wexford, said: ‘The Verona Murphy controversy was a defining moment in Irish politics. If it had gone the other way I think we would have had a very different landscape politically. If Verona had won it would have given light and lit a fuse to other opponents of Irish society who might be unsavoury.
‘I am happy that that style of politics doesn’t appear to have ignited the imagination of the people.’
He said things spiralled out of control. ‘It was badly stage managed in my view. Senior Fine Gael people have confirmed that to me and that was the key to the whole thing. You don’t give three separate interviews on three days in a row and make three separate mistakes,’ he said referring to her comments on migrants.
‘It was a very deliberate attempt to capture a certain style of vote which I believe completely backfired after spending €100,000 on a campaign. I know Verona. She is a decent person but I don’t think Fine Gael see a way back for her. The story of the election wasn’t her. People have responded to people on the ground working on issues as opposed to concoctions.’
He acknowledged that Murphy received ‘a very decent vote’, tempering his comments by saying he was up against the entire Fine Gael machine for Co Wexford.
Ultimately Fianna Fáil’s low-key campaign had worked. For Fine Gael it was a matter of damage limitation. But there was a further twist in the tale as James Reilly blamed Murphy’s comments, in part, for his poor by-election vote.
Then Minister Flanagan suggested that journalist and candidate Gemma O’Doherty had gotten a free pass about some of her controversial comments, compared to Murphy.
To cap it all off a video claiming Murphy had been the victim of character assassination by media was released on Thursday, despite not having been approved by the party.
Speaking on Saturday following four by-election defeats, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the video as bizarre, further distancing him from the Ramsgrange woman.
He said: ‘It wasn’t approved by the party. I’m not sure it was approved by the candidate, but as I say that will form part of the review that we will carry out in all four constituencies in the next couple of weeks, as we always do. It is the normal course of events that after a by-election we carry out a review of each contest and review the ticket on that basis.’
He said; ‘It is always in the power of our executive council, on my recommendation, to add or delete candidates.’
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said Murphy’s video did the party a massive disservice, reflecting a growing frustration with the party’s candidate who had been courted by several parties prior to being announced as a bright hope for Fine Gael.
I AM ABSOLUTELY ENAMOURED BY THE PEOPLE OF WEXFORD. IF IT WAS A GENERAL ELECTION I WOULD HAVE WON A SEAT. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO MAY AND WILL BE HITTING THE GROUND FULL STEAM AHEAD ON MONDAY