basic social welfare rates, and to restore the minimum wage.
Just after Christmas, I began my ‘Leader's Tour’ of the constituencies. It began on Wednesday January 5 at the Glen of the Downs, a short distance from my Shankill home. In the Glenview Hotel, with our three candidates and a large crowd of Labour supporters, I kicked off the general election campaign in Wicklow. Then on to Enniscorthy and Wexford to hook up with Brendan Howlin and the late Pat Cody, and from there to Clonmel to campaign with Phil Prendergast the following morning. After that it was back to Dublin for a press conference on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, it was Louth and Meath, and then back to campaign in the Dublin constituencies over the weekend. And it continued like that, every day, until polling day. We travelled in a fleet of estate cars decorated in the red Labour livery. We felt the cars would be more nimble than a campaign bus in urban traffic. I was in the first car, driven by Kevin Eager, accompanied by my Communications Manager, Karen Griffin. In the second car was a team of young election workers whom we labelled ‘the red jackets’. They created a splash of Labour colour at each stop, handing out literature and leading the way for the candidates. Behind that came the press corps, made up of RTÉ and TV3 crews, news and feature journalists from the national newspapers, and a number of photographers.
The visits followed a consistent pattern. On arrival, there was a photographed welcome for us from the candidate and his/her supporters; a doorstep interview for the media’s benefit; a walkabout with the candidate canvassing votes on the streets of the town; a visit to some venue of local significance, perhaps a shopping centre, a hospital, a factory or a community centre; a visit to the local radio station for an interview; a session with the local press on local issues and to highlight the credentials and prospects of the local candidate; a cup of tea in the local hotel or coffee-shop to give me a chance to have a ‘word in the ear’ with local people; and finally a short motivational speech for the local election team. Then, back into the cars and move onto the next town to do much the same thing all over again … and again and again.
The journey between visits was for my briefing. Karen Griffin had put together an information pack for every visit. It included a summary of the local issues, and the position being taken on them by the Labour Party. The new by-pass road; the controversial traveller housing scheme; the speculation about the future of the local hospital; the Council’s plan for a waste/recycling centre at the edge of the town etc. On these short journeys, I read the cuttings from the local newspapers, absorbed their analysis of the election contest in that particular constituency, including any local polling, and familiarised myself with the strengths and weaknesses of the other parties and candidates. I also had to ensure that I caused no offence to our own candidates and supporters. Where there was more than one candidate, I had to prepare phrases which gave each equal emphasis; I needed to know the names of their spouses and to mention anything significant which may have recently happened in their lives, like a birth or a funeral. On these journeys, Karen also ran by me, the names and photographs of our local councillors, lest I forget a name during the canvass.
I had to be word perfect all the time. Modern media, in all its forms, now records everything. Political life is now permanently public.
I developed a good working relationship with the press corps covering my tour. They were, of course, suitably challenging and probing in their questioning. I was well prepared on the main news items and issues of the day, but they were also keen to test me with requests to respond to what other party leaders had said on any number of topics or to charges somebody (sometimes one of our own!) had made against the Labour Party just a few minutes previously. Accordingly, a portion of each journey was spent on the phone to our election headquarters, getting updated on the campaign, briefed on evolving issues and sometimes making final decisions on campaign tactics.
I have always loved canvassing – talking one-to-one with a voter about a public issue or a personal worry. But for the very same reason, I hated the canvass walkabouts: there was no chance to have normal interactions with people as the peloton of candidates, red jackets, election workers and media hustled down the street or through the busy shopping centres. They were largely for show, for photographers who often jostled to get their picture of the day, for our press people who fretted about getting positive coverage, for the six o’clock news. However, they did act as magnets for the concerns of the voting public and that made them important.
The messages that came our way were consistent: workers were worried about their jobs; parents were concerned about the future for their children; pensioners were worried that the State could discontinue paying their pensions. What was most surprising was that, unlike any previous election campaign I had been on, there was little talk now of local issues. Voters were worried about the future of the country.
On most streets the shops were empty. In the entire canvass, I rarely saw a customer actually buying anything in a clothes boutique, a sports shop, or in a furniture or hardware store. The only purchase appeared to be essentials in supermarkets and pharmacies.
It was a winter campaign and I picked up a heavy cold. My family doctor looked hopelessly at me, saying ‘I suppose there’s no point in suggesting you take a couple of days to rest.’ Armed with a prescription, my Lemsip and a cough bottle, I struggled on.
I carried the cold into my first TV debate with Micheál Martin, the new leader of Fianna Fáil. For many decades, RTÉ had hosted television debates between the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. But the Labour Party had never been allowed into a 3-way Leaders Debate. Their rationale for the exclusion of Labour was that it was proper order to put head to head the potential candidates for Taoiseach. The tussle between Charlie Haughey and Garret FitzGerald was legendary. Bertie Ahern had debated with John Bruton, Michael Noonan and Enda Kenny in successive general elections. These big television debates had considerable influence on the outcomes of the elections, yet the Labour Party was not included. In more recent elections, RTÉ hosted a separate debate for the leaders of the smaller parties – the Progressive Democrats (PDs), Greens, Sinn Féin and Labour. The verbal tussle between Pat Rabbitte and Michael McDowell, the Leader of the PDs, in the 2007 General Election was especially memorable. But given how the polls were going, we were pushing for RTÉ to include me in the main Leader’s debate.
As late as the Labour Party Conference in Galway in mid-April 2010, just nine months before the election was called, RTÉ was still maintaining the status quo. I used my opening speech at the conference to make the case for Labour to be included, and in an analysis piece the following Monday in the Irish Times, headed ‘Savvy performer Gilmore would gain in three-way debate’, Deaglán de Bréadún wrote: ‘The fact that our nearest neighbours have now adopted this practice greatly increases the pressure to include the Labour Leader. It’s not a prospect calculated to delight Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, whatever public protestations they might make to the contrary.’
A highlight of the British General Election, then underway, was their series of debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Shortly after his election as the new Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin wrote to Enda Kenny and me proposing a three-way debate. TV3 offered to host it, but Enda refused to participate. TV3 decided to run a head-to-head between Micheál Martin and me, to be moderated by Vincent Browne. It was set for Tuesday night 8 February. Among commentators the feeling was that I would win such a debate. I was not quite so confident myself. I had been performing well in the Dáil, I was a competent public speaker, I had a good command of policy, and I could generally handle myself well in an interview. However, I had had my fair share of bad days in the studio, and these haunted me a little. In a radio interview with Marian Finucane in September, I came across, I realised afterwards, as unnecessarily evasive about my political past. A technical fault on the headphones had given rise to a poor lunchtime interview with Seán O’Rourke just before Christmas. And although I did fine on the Late Late Show in late November (despite the friendly forewarning from Ryan Tubridy: ‘Eamon, we are not bringing you in for a hug’), I was subsequently criticised for saying that Labour in government would not be able to reverse Fianna Fáil's cuts.
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