Fine Gael issue Mayo general election statement of intent

Irrespective of how one looks at it, Fine Gael has pulled off a coup in Mayo by securing the general election candidacies of Councillor Mark Duffy and the chief executive of Mayo Roscommon Hospice, Martina Jennings, Hollymount.

An official party announcement of the duo joining Minister of State Alan Dillon and Westport-based Keira Keogh was made last Thursday.

The key aspect of the new additions, in purely electioneering terms, is that strategists identified two high profile people from outside the party gene pool with strong name recognition and, more importantly, were able to get both of them across the line without any serious internal divisions, albeit some rumblings may materialise when the skirmishing of the election battle starts in earnest.

While few observers would have really expected a committed community independent activist like Mark Duffy to join Fine Gael, he ultimately came to the realisation that he would be better employed serving his town and county with the backing of an established political power, and particularly so if he is elected a TD in the coming weeks or early next year.

Martina Jennings, on the other hand, has been swayed by a need to fill a political void in the south of the constituency and felt a party led by Taoiseach Simon Harris as the best pathway to achieve her objective and build on her community achievements with the Hospice Foundation.

Both will have noticed how former Mayo footballer Alan Dillon's breakthrough in the 2020 general election was built on his ability to attract a high percentage of vote transfers due to his strong name recognition.

So, to put the entire picture into perspective, Fine Gael has moved from a position in which it was only looking seriously at winning one seat in the aftermath of its selection convention last month to a place where it can aspire to securing three seats out of five despite the retirement of Deputy Michael Ring, a prolific vote-gatherer throughout his career.

Now, similar to Ring to some extent, Duffy and Jennings are not overly dependent on traditional Fine Gael support bases to give them a genuine chance of being elected and that's essential in the new political world where Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are working together to ensure a maximum return of seats to help them form a government together again.

The electorate, of course, will always ultimately decide the destination of seats.

But it cannot be denied that Fine Gael, at this point at least, is positioning itself firmly in Mayo to sway matters strongly in its favour with its 'dream team'.