McGahon candidacy opens FG up to political onslaught

Fine Gael now has a candidate problem which has galvanised everybody else into attack mode.

Senator John McGahon is the party's main hope of retaining its seat in Louth as one of its stalwarts, Fergus O’Dowd, retires.

But a late-night street fight outside a pub in Dundalk six years ago has come back to haunt the Senator, and the party.

Mr McGahon ended up in an argument with another man, Breen White, which became physical.

The Senator was found not guilty in a criminal trial in 2022 of assault causing harm to Mr White.

However Mr White took a civil action, suing Mr McGahon for assault and battery. This was aired in the High Court in July.

Mr McGahon was found 65% liable for damages and the Judge ordered him to pay €39,000.

In the wake of the court decision, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was asked in July whether Mr McGahon should be allowed to run as a General Election candidate for the party.

Acquitted

Mr Harris said he was happy for the Senator to put himself forward, although he added that what happened was not acceptable.

But he was satisfied that the candidate was remorseful and had given an assurance that such an incident would never happen again.

He also characterised what occurred as a "scuffle" and underlined that Mr McGahon had been acquitted of a criminal charge.

Fast forward to yesterday when the Sunday Times published an interview with Mr White, along with photos indicating the facial injuries he had sustained.

This has ignited the issue and united many other parties in declaring that Mr McGahon is not a suitable General Election candidate.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the attack was vicious from what he saw on a video.

When asked if it calls into question the Fine Gael leader’s judgement, Mr Martin said he was surprised by the decision to double down on his candidacy.

"I was shocked. There is a victim here and he feels he hasn’t been listened to and I was shocked to see the photographs. I didn’t realise at all that the assault was of that scale."

He added: "It was anything but a scuffle".

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty struck a similar note, adding that he was surprised that Fine Gael had carried out no disciplinary action and that the party was now seeking to promote him to the Dáil.

He also highlighted what he perceived as an unfairness in the headlines about Sinn Féin’s recent problems.

Describing the attack as vicious, he said: "That person would not be a candidate for Sinn Féin. It would also be wall-to-wall to coverage if it was a Sinn Féin candidate, let’s be honest about this."

For the second day running, Mr Harris has been diverted from the party’s key campaign messages.

'Damaging'

Today, he stuck to the party line that Mr McGahon had been cleared of criminal charges.

He said these facts have been known for a very long period of time but the election had led to the incident resurfacing.

And he added that, ultimately, it would be up to the people of Louth to decide.

This seems to be the Fine Gael strategy. The party is backing its candidate because to back down at this point would be fatal.

But the re-emergence of this fracas is damaging. This is a seat that Fine Gael really wants to hold.

Fianna Fáil is eyeing up a gain in the constituency where it currently has no representative. And there are a lot of votes up for grabs as three of the sitting five TDs are retiring.

This is all very bad timing for the Senator’s bid to enter the Dáil. Another Fine Gael candidate, Paula Butterly, is based in the southern end of the constituency, but outside the centre of Drogheda.

The danger for the party is that all the bad publicity ends up costing it a seat that should have been a relatively straightforward hold.