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A FIANNA FÁIL councillor who failed to win the party’s nomination to run in the general election last night has heavily criticised Micheál Martin.
David McGuinness told RTÉ’s Drivetime that “fundamentally the issue of Micheál leading the party is on the lips of every single member in Dublin West”.
He said he did not know where the party is going under the former minister.
McGuinness, who twice failed to win by-elections in the constituency, was beaten by fellow Fingal county councillor Jack Chambers in a controversial selection convention in Dublin West last night.
Recalling a conversation he had with Martin on the phone last night, McGuinness did not hold back, saying:
“I told him out straight, I don’t know where Fianna Fáil is going, I don’t know who they are trying to represent. I told him there and then – I said there is going to be a huge cross-section of society across Dublin West who would have serious reservations about voting for the party on this basis.”
McGuinness failed to hold Brian Lenihan’s old Dáil seat for Fianna Fáil in a by-election when the former finance minister died in 2011. He also failed to win a by-election held last year following the resignation of independent TD Patrick Nulty over a Facebook messages scandal.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterDavid McGuinness: "I’m questioning where I am now in life because of this.” #drivetime
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) February 26, 2015
Having failed to secure his party’s nomination to run for the Dáil for a third time McGuinness said that the party does not “seem to have a strategy”.
“We don’t have a vision for the party. We don’t know who it is trying to attract in the electorate, and I don’t know how we are going to win back seats, particularly in Dublin, with this type of politics,” he said.
McGuinness said that he was not particularly surprised that he was not selected.
He claimed he was at “the brunt end of a class divide” in Dublin West where some members in the Castleknock part of the constituency did not want to vote for him.
Of last night’s meeting of around 400 Fianna Fáil members in the area, McGuinness said: “One of the things the membership in that room had actually in common last night was that they were against me. But they are certainly against him [Martin].”
McGuinness is the second by-election candidate in this Dáil to fail to get elected and subsequently criticise Martin.
Last December, failed Roscommon-South Leitrim by-election candidate Ivan Connaughton called on Martin to go.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterNiall Collins: "I understand that David McGuinness is very disappointed.”
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) February 26, 2015
Speaking on the same programme this evening, Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesperson Niall Collins said that it was “not the case” that Micheál Martin’s leadership was on members’ lips.
He said that McGuinness had been beaten by Chambers “in a fairly open, democratic process”.
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Sounds more like censorship & who would decide what’s ” Fake news” . I haven’t heard many people complaining about the way we vote so maybe just leave things the way they are!
@Colette Kearns: Sometimes we have short memories in Ireland.
There have been ongoing issues with the manual electoral process we have for years – one major contentious point is the payment of those in counting centres which seems to go to the same people in every election and the process of how people are selected is always controversial, not to mention how slow some counting centres are.
In 2002 we tried to bring in electronic voting for the Nice treaty, trialed in Dublin, was an expensive disaster and was never rolled out out, we still have a load of the machines in warehouses in Dublin.
Ireland has needed to modernise the electoral process for years, e-voting, at minimum needs to be effectively brought in so a commission to plan it should be welcomed
@Colette Kearns:
Yeah because who’s to say if Kevin Sorbo’s claims that the Trump rioters were all Antifa insider’s is really true… Some things are plainly untrue and fake news. Reports based entirely on conjecture and speculation, or claims which are demonstrably untrue, are not news.
Convincing people that the line between real and fake news is somehow unclear, or that legitimate political expression is somehow endangered by attempts to control it, is one of Trump’s biggest accomplishments, and likely to be his most enduring “legacy”.
@Gerard: Can you prove that there were absolutely no Antifa members at the Capitol Hill riots? It works both ways, I’m sure when he made that claim about Antifa members you asked if he had proof, well what about you. Can you prove your theory?
I’m not saying I agree or disagree, just playing devils advocate, we should apply standards equally, not on a sliding scale based on how well they for in to someone’s view and provide confirmation bias for a certain opinion
@Gerard: It’s not just about whether information is true or false. For me, it’s also about what is not reported. This is a big issue in Ireland, RTE and Irish MSM are notorious for not reporting issues or resorting to a particular narratives.
Those of us who grew up with the Troubles as the background score to our lives are now finding out what really went on in NI. It’s what was omitted that’s the real issue.
Don’t start me on the Catholic Church and state institutions and the abuse of women and children, all of which went unreported for decades. As did the unreported crimes of cronyism, corruption and lack of accountability of our state institutions, judiciary and politicians.
If Michael Martin thinks the public would support MSM by a tax, he’s mistaken because many of us see MSM as the problem
Allegations of fake news is just a cop out as we have been living with fake news/official narratives for decades and anything put forward to challenge this will be even more destructive.
@Simon Carroll: the default case is that something is untrue and must be proven to be true. Which a couple of blurry photos of tattoos of one do not do.
The fact that there were Trump supporters there is undeniable and there is ample evidence of it. Trump even accepts this as fact in his praise of the rioters. Anything else is conjecture and wishful thinking.
It actually doesn’t work both ways. The presumption is false until proven true.
I recommend watching John Oliver’s segment about voting machines in America (from his ‘Last Week Tonight’ HBO show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEuG_ekNT0
As for Fianna Fail’s voting machines, while I cannot prove anything and I do not actually know for a fact, I cannot shake the suspicion that this was another of FF’s attempts to manipulate elections, after their attempts to redraw constituencies (TWICE) to ensure they would always gain the majority of elected TD’s were roundly rejected.
@David A. Murray: Yet when American Republicans put forward such points about e-voting they are deemed crackpots?
@David A. Murray: so you’ve no evidence of anything.
@Cosmos20202020: That was what I said. I suspect based on previous attempts by FF. I said I have no evidence. I’ll go further. I have never heard of anyone who claimed to have evidence. It was my opinion.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: You might want to check up (even a little) on which states have bad records for voter suppression and flawed use of voting methods. The cross-reference with the periods of time and which party the Governor and Election Officials were in office. Not always, but usually (over the last 40 years) it’s been Republican more than Democrat. Also, Republican Election Officials have been targeted and fired for not towing Trump and his cohorts propaganda in 2020 about a ‘stolen election’.
@David A. Murray:
You’re talking absolute nonsense. After every census constituencies are redrawn to reflect changed population densities. You have no idea what you’re talking about and your conspiracy talk is laughable. Think you should move to the US you might find more of your bedfellows over there.
Quantum computing when developed a bit further will blow blockchain encryption apart. I don’t know what will happen then but I wouldn’t want out voting system to be in the middle of it. Paper voting works. We have no fraud. Waiting for the count is not a big deal.
And if you’d don’t t have a smart phone?
Good article Senator. The government’s proposed draft legislation for an electoral commission is already outdated because it is focused solely on reform of the electoral register. It is completely silent on issues like social media regulation, the use of online crowd funding to finance campaigns and even revised rules on postal voting. Our elections are key to ensuring public confidence in our democracy and failure to comprehensively reform the regulatory framework to take account of these issues is a risk we cannot afford to take.
A change is needed. The current system where a voter can be registered in multiple areas is “an open door” for manipulation! What other major system would remain unchanged for so long?
Wanna have hot-lovin’ conversations? You’re on the right way! – chatie.club/xxx
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