Parties once again seek touch of stardust to sprinkle on their European campaigns
It’s time to recruit sports stars, names from television – and don’t forget elsewhere in showbiz. Yes, we’re talking about those European elections and once more it is parachute time. On June 7 – that’s only seven weeks from this Friday – Irish people will be asked to vote in their 10th direct election to the European Parliament. These contests have always been very different from the Dáil and council elections – in fact they are nearer in scale, and sometimes in zany tones, to the presidential votes we get every seven years.
These European elections do not overly enthuse voters and in Ireland, as across most of the 26 other EU member states, they are often fought on national and sometimes even intensely local issues.
Yet, be assured of one thing: the European Parliament is now very important in the EU decision-making process and good Irish MEPs are vital.
This parliament has changed dramatically since the EU Maastricht Treaty of 1991. In 1979, when direct elections were first held, parliament was an afterthought, to be formally consulted – though not often listened to – by the policy-guiding European Commission and law-making council of member governments, who jointly called the shots.
Maastricht, and succeeding EU treaty changes, have given MEPs real powers to shape and veto laws, and hold different units of the EU to account. For self-preservation, we must consider carefully the 14 MEPs who will represent us in the coming five years. The need to push Ireland’s case all through Brexit was a very good example of all this.
But there are practical problems with these votes. For one thing, the two other constituencies, bar Dublin, are crazily scattered and comprise places with very little in common.
While Dublin city and county is a compact and highly populated unit, returning four MEPs, the exact opposite is true of the two remaining European constituencies, Ireland South and Midlands-North-West, which will each elect five MEPs.
Ireland South comprises the six counties of Munster and the Leinster counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Wicklow and Wexford. So that one stretches from Bray to Kenmare and from the Burren to Carnsore Point.
The Midlands-North-West constituency is even more diffuse, with the five Connacht counties, the three Ulster counties in the Republic, and seven Leinster counties: Laois, Offaly, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, Longford and Louth. So, that one stretches from Inishowen in Donegal to the boglands of Offaly and from the Aran Islands to the Cooley Mountains.
When you look at things like that, you can see the attraction of high-profile candidates who are not from a traditional political background – often unfairly dubbed “parachute candidates”. To be in with any chance at all, candidates need to have a strong “jumping-off point” and good name recognition beyond the home base.
More than in Dáil and council campaigns, they also need to be really good media performers, able to hold their own on radio and television, and they need a very strong social-media campaign.
Since we now have a TikTok Taoiseach, we have to acknowledge that the online campaign is now a central part of our politics.
Success requires tens of thousands of votes and a great deal of luck. Ideally, something approaching 10pc of the poll is required. But some strugglers have got less and fretted their way to the last seat – and remember a last seat will do just as well as any.
The European elections past have been replete with “celebrity candidates”. Going back to 2004, there was success for RTÉ presenter and Farming Independent editor Mairead McGuinness, who eventually became Ireland’s EU Commissioner.
The 2009 election saw the arrival of former inspirational GAA president Seán Kelly, who has shown ever since how committee work in sport is eminently transferable to the corridors of Brussels and Strasbourg.
Those of us who follow politics will be aware of some high-profile candidates from nonorthodox political backgrounds who have already fielded for the upcoming contest.
Fine Gael, which has traditionally emerged well from these Euros but is up against it this time, is fielding a star former jockey Nina Carberry to partner former Rose of Tralee and sitting MEP Maria Walsh in Midlands-NorthWest.
The newly minted Independent Ireland party has recruited former RTÉ midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly to help front up its effort.
These candidates start with the considerable advantage of a large number of people knowing who they are – but notoriety is not a guarantee of success and everything depends on just how credible they can be on a long and gruelling campaign.
Voters in Ireland South must brace themselves for the media phenomenon that is Cynthia Ní Mhurchú. The Carlow woman has spent years working in the courts as a barrister. But she will also be recalled by many as a Raidió na Gaeltachta presenter, who also had the distinction of presenting the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, alongside the late Gerry Ryan, a show which gave the world Riverdance.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, is already stoking the “healthy competition” between Ms Ní Mhurchú and sitting MEP Billy Kelleher, who is equally no stranger to tough campaigns.
It would be no harm to insert a bit of life and controversy into these forthcoming contests – but internal competition is also a risky game and can result in loss.
‘European elections past have been replete with “celebrity candidates”. Going back to 2004, there was success for RTÉ presenter and “Farming Independent” editor Mairead McGuinness, who eventually became EU Commissioner’
With the news that Jonathan Hill is to step down as FAI chief executive, one would hope that finding a candidate to fill the position won’t take as long as the process to fill the senior international men’s team coaching position vacated by Stephen Kenny.