FF’s rising star enlists her mother for canvass
YOU’RE never finished with your children, are you?’ sighs Dee Dee Cuffe, gathering up a stack of electioneering literature before heading down the bustling Quinsborough Road in Bray.
The mainstay of her daughter Jennifer’s campaign in Wickow/East Carlow where Fianna Fáil hope to reclaim one of the two seats it held prior to the 2011 wipeout, Dee Dee never in her wildest dreams thought she’d spend her retirement in this fashion.
Neither she or her husband Cyril, who works in the financial department of a security firm, were remotely interested in politics until 29-yearold Jennifer opened a window on a new world.
‘Jennifer is the youngest of five, there’s ten years between her and the next and she’s kind of blown us all away really with the politics,’ says Dee Dee, a warm-hearted woman from Cabinteely in south Dublin who makes a point of introducing herself at doors as the candidate’s mother.
‘She was always interested in social justice and she sees the problems people have from her work in the Family Courts. She can also sell sand in the desert.’
A councillor for two years, barrister Jennifer has a helpful nature with an enthusiastic, jolly hockey sticks demeanour. As a schoolgirl she was a big wheel in the St Vincent de Paul, becoming president of her conference at the aged of 22.
Since her selection as one of Fianna Fáil’s two General Election candidates in Wicklow/East Carlow, she has campaigned every day in the sprawling constituency.
Originally she hoped to do battle in Dún Laoghaire but that field was a bit overcrowded what with Kate Feeney and the never-say-die party veteran Mary Hanafin.
So she set her sights on the neighbouring constituency where there actually was a vacancy for a female candidate and, more importantly, a fresh youthful face, untainted with the old Fianna Fáil regime.
She settled some months ago in Greystones, an area she knows well though family connections, and she’s enjoying it there except for the commute. ‘The Dart schedule is not frequent enough for people who work outside Greystones,’ she says.
‘The return ticket into town costs €10.60. That’s a massive amount of money when you are working.’
Her appeal as a young and energetic woman who knows about ordinary struggles goes down well at the doorsteps of Wyndham Park and its environs, a quiet and middle- class enclave facing Bray Head. On the main drag, however, there the occasional moan of ‘oh gawd’ when Fianna Fáil is mentioned.
At one house Jennifer meets her old singing teacher from Holy Child, Killiney, while another, clearly sporting household, pledge complete support for the blonde dynamo, telling her that she’s ‘all right with the GAA crowd’.
Jennifer is involved in fundraising for Bray Emmets, the local GAA club, and on Saturday takes part in its Strictly Come Dancing extravaganza where the judge is party rival Simon Harris.
‘I’ll be dancing the salsa with a local solicitor,’ she says, showing me a video of the rehearsals on her iPhone. After the canvass each night, she and her partner rehearse in a room adjoining her campaign headquarters.
Her campaigning confidence comes from her confounding predictions in the council elections, coming in third out of 12 candidates in Killiney/ Shankill and winning a seat that the party hadn’t held for a decade.
She caught the political bug in 2011 while campaigning for her old King’s Inns friend Lisa Chambers in the Taoiseach’s heartland of Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
‘God, we had a blast that weekend,’ recalls Jennifer of her baptism of fire. ‘We thought we’d get a roasting on the canvass because we were Fianna Fáil – but the abuse was because we were from Dublin.’
After helping Lisa’s campaign for vice-president of Fianna Fáil the following year, Jennifer pledged herself to the Soldiers of Destiny.
‘I just fell in love with canvassing, I thought it was great,’ she explains. ‘My hero at school was Seán Lemass and at the end of the day I’m a republican. Sure, people asked why I didn’t run as an Independent but I’m delighted to be involved in rebuilding the party, i t has been a great experience.’
The eager new recruit will be even more delighted should she steal a seat in next week’s election.
Her triumph may mean a Micheál Martin-led revival for Fianna Fáil and the arrival of another rising star in politics. And no doubt the answer to her mother Dee Dee’s prayers.