In a presidential election that looks set to be remembered for all the wrong reasons, you might be forgiven for wondering why so many obvious questions never got asked.
Surely, the most obvious of these involves the question as to whatever happened to Heather Humphreys’ Fine Gael logo?
If you don’t believe me on that missing Fine Gael logo then have a look at her election website for starters. Incredibly, this manages the unbelievable feat of never once mentioning the political party that Humphreys is contesting the election on behalf of!
There are pictures galore of a smiling Heather with the slogan ‘Heather A President for All’ and lots of soft focus videos of the type that you would normally associate with a feelgood Lidl advert. The same election website refers extensively to Humphreys’ political achievements – without ever naming the political party she represented in government!
It’s much the same story with those election posters adorning thousands of telephone poles across Ireland at the moment. As well as a picture of a smiling Heather the only other information we are given in this pitch for our votes is the somewhat inane slogan ‘Heather – A President for All’.
The only clue that it has something to do with Fine Gael comes in the form of the words ‘Fine Gael’ written in the smallest legible font size in the top right hand corner of the poster. It’s no exaggeration to say that that those two words could pass as the last line of a reading test in your local Specsavers outlet.
It’s much the same story with Humphreys’ social media accounts. Notably, her long standing X political account at @HHumphreysFG has been retired only to be replaced by the more generic @HeatherH. Eagle-eyed readers will immediately spot the difference – the missing FG.
The notion that the President is above politics and so an election for the role should not really lean on party politics is all well and good until you consider just how Fine Gael has gone out of its way to do just that in the run up to that same election.
Consider Fine Gael leader Simon Harris’ emphatic instruction to councillors around the country not to nominate any candidates for the purposes of contesting the presidential election. If Fine Gael councillors thought they were accountable to their electorate they were mistaken. According to Simon Harris, they are accountable to him as leader of Fine Gael not the people who elected them.
The imposition of the whip on Fine Gael councillors had some interesting results. Undoubtedly, the most notable of these was that 29 out of 32 councils chose not nominate a candidate for the presidential election.
Politicians around the world are not generally known for believing they have too much power and Irish councillors are no different. Exercising a right bestowed on them by the constitution is one normally relished by councillors. However, on this occasion, it was a right they opted not to exercise following the intervention of their leader.
These council votes had their own intriguing outcomes. Take Leitrim County Council which saw a motion to nominate Maria Steen defeated by an unholy alliance of four Sinn Féin, three Fine Gael, one Fianna Fáil and one Independent councillor. In Leitrim, at any rate, Simon Harris appears to have had no problem in getting into bed with Sinn Féin in order to keep other candidates off the ballot paper.
Cork County Council also had its own intriguing vote. The vote to nominate involved not just the three names of those seeking a nomination but a somewhat unusual fourth category called ‘none of the above’. This latter category attracted support not just from those who were opposed to nominating someone in the first instance but also those opposed to nominating any of the three seeking a nomination.
This made for a powerful alliance. At the end of the day, Maria Steen received 11 votes, Cllr Kieran McCarthy 9, William Allen 4 and ‘none of the above’ 26 meaning the original decision to nominate someone was effectively overturned. You would have to ask if these same councillors would be happy to include this same ‘none of the above’ category in their own council elections or indeed in the upcoming presidential election.
Either way, while parties like Fine Gael are going to great lengths to project a narrative about the presidency being above party politics, it is clear that the party leadership has been ruthless in bringing party politics into play in order to control who could and could not get on the ballot paper.
Projecting the narrative that the presidential election is above party politics is itself a political strategy. This is especially so for Fine Gael who, despite being in government for the last 14 years, have become something of a toxic political brand in the eyes of the Irish electorate. It’s worth recalling that in the last decade, Fine Gael with about 20% electoral support have been recording some of their lowest votes ever in the history of the party.
Readers will recall that in last year’s general election, the Fine Gael backroom team’s grand strategy appeared to hinge around downplaying the Fine Gael brand and talking up the Simo Harris brand. That strategy backfired spectacularly with Fine Gael achieving just 20.8% of the vote in the 2024 general election.
That might well explain the distance the Fine Gael backroom team now appear to be putting between both Simon Harris, Fine Gael and candidate Heather Humphreys. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that Heather Humphreys is, in fact, running to be elected as chairperson of some local Tidy Towns committee as opposed to the Office of President of Ireland.
Much like the political fiasco around Jim Gavin being the personal nomination of Micheál Martin, so too it seems Heather Humphreys is following a carefully scripted political strategy by Fine Gael. That strategy might best be summarised as one centred on blocking rival candidates from getting on the ballot paper in the first place while downplaying the political affiliations of their own candidate.
It remains to be seen if the Fine Gael backroom boys finally get their long awaited electoral victory or if that same electorate manage to spot that Heather Humphreys is a member of Fine Gael after all.
That missing logo could well decide if Catherine Connolly – and her entirely deluded view of the role of the President of Ireland – end up snatching the prize of Áras an Uachtaráin from Fine Gael.