Jackie’s fighting grandsons are no chip off the old block
WELL, hanam an diabhail, as the late, great Jackie Healy-Rae used to say when confronted by exasperation or surprise.
He’d have had more than sufficient reason to be exasperated again this week, if he were around, as his grandsons – his namesake Jackie and Kevin – were each convicted of serious criminal offences at a court in Tralee.
Up until now the Healy-Raes seemed to have an impenetrable protective shield around them, like those ginormous alien spaceships in that Nineties film classic Independence Day.
However, as that Hollywood blockbuster made clear, nothing is ever absolute.
And, like those alien spaceships, the Healy-Rae shield has now been pierced from inside.
The blackguarding and thuggery that resulted in
Jackie and Kevin Healy-Rae being found guilty of assault causing harm to a visitor to Kenmare two years ago can only be a deep humiliation to their father, Independent Deputy Michael Healy-Rae.
The Healy-Rae brand in Kerry is a phenomenon, unlike anything ever seen before.
It was built on the charm, character and correctness of the original of the species, the late Jackie.
He was a brilliant political strategist.
But his real strength was his connection to the people he served.
His work ethic and unapologetic partisanship in favour of Kerry has rubbed off on his son Michael, who has managed to expand the HealyRae brand to celebrity status throughout Ireland.
But, the kind of behaviour engaged in by his sons during the encounter at a chip van, and detailed in court, is definitely not his style.
Nor is it to the liking of the other wing of the Healy-Rae family, including Michael’s brother and fellow TD Danny.
A member of the extended family said this week: ‘Bating a lad around the streets of Kenmare is not how the HealyRaes do business.’
With only months to another general election, these convictions could not have come at a worse time.
The Healy-Rae brothers will be sentenced on Friday and if Jackie Jr gets more than six months in jail (out of a possible maximum of 12 months), then he gets booted out of his Kerry County Council seat which he won in a landslide only last May.
The brothers have already stated they’ll appeal the convictions to the Circuit Court, which means the cases will still be up in the air during the general election.
The one great advantage the two Healy-Rae TDs have to retain their Dáil seats is the woeful absence of credible candidates in either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
There’s no doubt, however, but that the Healy-Rae brand has – like Jackie and Kevin HealyRae’s victim – taken a beating.
Hanam an diabhail, indeed.