FINAL WEEK OF CAMPAIGNING IN ELECTION 2020
FEIGHAN’S FINAL FURLONG AS HE HOPES TO GET A SEAT
THE artist formerly known as Frank Feighan glides along O’Connell Street introducing himself to shoppers, exchanging quips and talking bygone days of the Bit O’Red.
Sligo Rovers talk is currency around these parts and Feighan is quick to cash in with days out from a General Election.
Stopping to do the weekly Rovers’ lotto, Feighan asks, ‘What numbers will I choose’, to which former Fine Gael local election candidate Blaine Gaffney responds, ‘Well you better pick number one to start with anyway’. And that was the advice being imparted to passersby as election material was being handed out by the team.
With the constituency divvied up between Frankie and colleague Thomas Walsh, Sligo town had been a no go area for Feighan before the weekend, but, with that embargo lifted the campaign team hit the tarmac of O’Connell Street to meet voters one-on-one.
It was a family affair, with Feighan’s wife Elaine and youngest canvasser, eleven-week-old son Macdara in tow. The couple and their two children live on the Strandhill Rd and Frankie makes sure to remind people that though his roots are in Roscommon, his life is very much based in Sligo
While out and about Feighan is faced with a number of concerns from voters, and commercial rates is one which business owner John Mullaney raises. Another man brings it back to the bread and butter of politics - the roads.
‘If I give you a vote will you come out and sort out the roads,’ he enquires.
No stranger to the campaign trail, having successfully run MEP Maria Walsh’s campaign, the Senator tells The Sligo Champion he is receiving nothing but a warm reception at the doors.
“It’s going very well, there’s a bit of momentum. The first two weeks there was issues such as pensions, beef prices, childcare and we’ve addressed a lot of those and people are now starting to focus on the economy and the future.”
Asked if he has felt a push back personally given the national row back towards his party, evidenced in recent polls, Feighan admits he noticed a bit of ‘ tension’ at the start of his campaign.
“There’s been a big change the last few days though, people are starting to focus on the important issues, Brexit and the economy and they believe that Fine Gael are the best party to deliver that future.”
Feighan believes the optics of his party’s apparent recent decline should be taken with a pinch of salt and says there’s two different worlds, ‘Facebook world’ and ‘ the real world’.
Post February 8th will reveal the reality.