Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has formally begun seeking support from colleagues to become the party’s presidential candidate. But in reality, the contest may hinge less on his strengths as a candidate, and more on the preferences of party leader Micheál Martin.
Within Fianna Fáil, it is widely understood that Martin will ultimately decide who carries the party’s banner. Senior figures already suggest that he is leaning towards Jim Gavin, the former Dublin football manager. If Martin does endorse Gavin, most TDs and Senators are expected to follow suit.
Regardless, Kelleher’s name in the race is worth examining.
Who is Billy Kelleher?
Kelleher has long experience in politics. First elected to the Dáil in 1997, he served as a junior minister in the late 2000s and later moved to the European Parliament, where he has been an MEP since 2019. In Brussels he has been active on agriculture, health, and economic issues, often weighing in on debates about Ireland’s interests in Europe.
Fianna Fáil may make the assessment that this gives him credibility as a serious, seasoned candidate with both domestic and international experience.
As an additional plus, he also comes from Cork, one of Fianna Fáil’s traditional strongholds, which could give him a reliable regional base of support inside the party.
But his weaknesses are obvious too. Kelleher is a conventional politician without the kind of national name recognition that presidential campaigns demand. He is well-known in political and media circles, but far less so among the wider public.
The Jim Gavin factor
Standing in his way is Jim Gavin.
Gavin is not a politician at all, but one of the most successful managers in GAA history. As manager of the Dublin football team from 2012 to 2019, he guided them to six All-Ireland titles, including an unprecedented five-in-a-row.
That record gives him a national profile that few Fianna Fáil politicians could hope to match. He’s widely seen as relatively uncontroversial. Senior Fianna Fáil figures have already been canvassing for him, and if Micheál Martin endorses him, the party is expected to line up behind him.
Other names in circulation
Eamon Ó Cúiv is another name that has been mentioned.
The grandson of Éamon de Valera, the party’s founder and Ireland’s dominant political figure of the 20th century, Ó Cúiv retired from the Dáil last year and represents a direct link to Fianna Fáil’s republican and nationalist roots. A long-serving TD for Galway West, he is respected within the grassroots, particularly in the west of the country. His candidacy would symbolise tradition and continuity.
Then there is Bertie Ahern, the former Taoiseach. Ahern led Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008 and was central to the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement. He also presided over Ireland’s economic boom in the early 2000s.
But his return would be highly divisive: the Mahon Tribunal did not find him corrupt, but concluded that he had failed to truthfully account for financial transactions. For some in Fianna Fáil, his candidacy would recall the party’s dominance, while for others, it would reopen old wounds and lead to a campaign reminding the public of scandals that the party has spent over a decade trying to forget.
The broader image dynamics at play
The decision for Fianna Fáil, then, is less about who puts their name forward and more about what kind of image the party wants to project.
– A Gavin candidacy would position Fianna Fáil as the party of popular, non-political respectability.
– An Ó Cúiv candidacy would emphasise tradition, history, and republican grassroots.
– An Ahern candidacy would signal a return to the party’s recent dominant past (for better or worse).
– A Kelleher candidacy would be the conventional political choice: steady, competent, but without the star quality of Gavin, the symbolism of Ó Cúiv, or the notoriety of Ahern.
For now, the momentum looks to be behind Gavin. If Micheál Martin signals support, that will likely settle the matter.
But until then, Billy Kelleher’s bid highlights the broader dilemma Fianna Fáil faces about what kind of candidate best serves the party’s interests in the Áras.