Ribbons fluttered on the bonnet of a car in an estate in Castleknock when Taoiseach Simon Harris, flanked by a former taoiseach, a former tánaiste and a local candidate, descended on the area for the Fine Gael leader’s first official canvass of election 2024.
“There’s a wedding coming out of this house,” a neighbour warned.
“Oh my God, we’ll get out of the way,” said Harris, “We’re not going to get in the bride’s way”.
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“She’s slightly late”, another onlooker said.
“It’s the bride’s prerogative to be late anyway ... I will leave you to it,” says Harris.
It’s the Taoiseach’s prerogative to call an early general election (even if fellow Coalition leaders Micheál Martin and Roderic O’Gorman dropped suggestions and hints along the way).
And that is what Harris had just done on Friday afternoon when he asked President Micheal D Higgins to dissolve the Dáil at nearby Áras an Uachtaráin.
Retreating from the street with the impending nuptials Harris says to another woman: “Imagine being the person who gatecrashed a wedding” before heading on down the street.
It turns out the woman – Joan Mulvihill – is the mother-in-law of Green Party candidate Ian Carey in Dublin Fingal East, and “he is so committed I must say”.
Asked if she was voting Green – party leader Roderic O’Gorman is running in Dublin West – she said: “I was always a mixed house”.
Fine Gael’s election candidate Emer Currie chips in with a hopeful “you’ll give me your number one”.
The Fine Gael senator, the daughter of the late Northern Ireland civil rights leader Austin Currie, is campaigning on a platform of improving the delivery of childcare and school places for the growing Dublin 15 area. She is seeking to retain the seat being vacated by former taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
She is “going to give it absolutely everything to keep the seat here for Fine Gael.”
[ An unhappy Ireland prepares for a general electionOpens in new window ]
Varadkar was knocking on doors as well, but steering clear of offering comment to the assembled media.
Former tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald was happy to heap praise on Harris, who started out in Leinster House with a job in her office.
Fine Gael, she says, has “every chance” of a good election under his leadership.
She adds: “We may have a lot of new candidates (18 outgoing TDs including Varadkar are not running) but as he [Harris] said, and it’s very true, they’re not new to their constituencies.”
That other election that happened this week – the small matter of Donald Trump’s victory in the United States – is raised with the Taoiseach by one woman.
“The world is an uncertain place isn’t it?” Harris says.
“I can’t understand the Americans – never,” the woman continued, adding: “I mean he was so twisted and yet he got in.”
Harris smiles and warmly thanks the woman for her time before moving on. He wasn’t going there.
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