Swingageddon!
FG sources say party’s internal war only heating up in Dún Laoghaire
SENIOR Fine Gael figures have warned that Fine Gael’s internal wars in Dún Laoghaire are only starting in the wake of the defenestration of Maria Bailey.
Party figures said: ‘Forget Dublin Bay South and Kate, “Murph” and Michael McDowell – this is the new Group of Death in Dublin.’
One seasoned observer said: ‘The game has only started. This is like Act III in Romeo and Juliet; the killing is only going to start now.’
And they predicted that ‘relations between the new Fine Gael team of Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will be equally, if not more, tense than anything in Dublin Bay South.’
Fine Gael, they said, ‘had the perfect team in 2016. Mary Mitchell O’Connor looked after the posh end of the vote whilst Maria secured a working-class GAA vote.’
By contrast, they warned, ‘both Mary Mitchell and Jennifer will be chasing the same vote. Hugo [Ms Carroll MacNeill’s husband and former rugby international] will be busy drafting all the Leinster rugby set into service. Mary Mitchell will not be pleased.’
A senior figure in the constituency warned: ‘Mary Mitchell is well able to give it back if Jennifer goes poaching on her turf. She will chase her out of Killiney; politically of course.’
One constituency source gleefully predicted: ‘This will make the famous battle of Blackrock between Mary Hanafin and Kate Feeney look like the teddy bears’ picnic.’
The mood of Ms Mitchell O’Connor is unlikely to be enhanced by the perception that Ms Carroll MacNeill is a favoured child of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s tight inner circle.
One senior figure told the
Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘She has big backers in the Leo inner circle. We were told three months ago that MacNeill would be on the ticket, that plans were afoot.’’ Unlike Mary Mitchell, they said: ‘Jennifer is part of that Dublin South, Trinity, Posh Boy set. They love the look of her politically, a sort of Irish Hillary Clinton.’
The apparatchik also predicted that the third candidate, Barry Ward, may be a victim of further bloodletting within the constituency.
He said: ‘They want Barry gone as well. Fine Gael believes it will go better with two candidates. The problem is they have nothing to give him like a Seanad seat to get him off the pitch.’
Senior sources within the constituency also warned that Ms Bailey was an uncertain variable.
One warned: ‘The tide is turning. The insurance thing was bad, but everyone loves a martyr. The Baileys are around for a long time.
‘They have walked the ground. She put two county development plans through her hands in Dún Laoghaire.’
One gleeful FF source noted: ‘This is the group of death for FG. Who knows? If Bailey, Mitchell and O’Connor get stuck in it could open the door for us to contend for a second seat.’
‘Mary Mitchell is well able to give it back’ ‘The Baileys are around for a long time’