ANALYSIS: Irish presidency poll turned on a televised moment

Oct 29, 2011, 12:35 GMT

Dublin - 'Trial by television' presidential candidate Martin McGuinness responded when asked during a live debate on national broadcaster RTE how he squared his Catholic conscience with murder in Northern Ireland.

Barely a week later, it was the turn of Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister to act as prosecutor as he sprang sleaze accusations on independent businessman candidate Sean Gallagher during a live televised debate with just two days of campaigning left.

The 49-year-old political outsider Gallagher had been sitting comfortably in the opinion polls with 40 per cent support for a week before the final televised debate, in which McGuinness launched his political 'ambush.'

Sinn Fein's McGuinness charged that Gallagher had received a 5,000-euro (6,950-dollar) cheque on Fianna Fail's behalf from a businessman with a conviction for tax fraud and fuel smuggling.

Doubts crept in as Gallagher failed to explain the discrepancies regarding his membership and alleged fundraising for Fianna Fail, the party blamed for Ireland's economic downfall and associated with cronyism.

Media observers contended that the election was lost when Gallagher mentioned an 'envelope' and said he could not 'recollect' what had happened.

In Irish politics, both of those words have associations with corruption, where money was received in brown envelopes and there were subsequent lapses in ability to recollect.

Gallagher's support crumbled, and there was a surge towards Labour candidate Michael D Higgins, who won the election.

A poll taken for RTE on Thursday, established that the televised debate programme had been the decisive factor in changing people's minds.

Most telling for voters was Gallagher's reaction to questions he was asked by Glenna Lynch, an ordinary member of the audience during the debate.

Lynch, who runs her own interior decorating business, questioned Gallagher's business ethics live on air and then became a star of the airwaves and social media as Gallagher accused her of being a political plant.

'Who is the businesswoman and what's her background and where does she come from and what party does she belong to?' Gallagher asked angrily of Lynch's questions the following day.

'Is she in somebody else's campaign team, trying to take down my campaign?' he asked, deflecting her questions about his non-repayment of a state grant for business start-ups, and his transfer of funds from one company to another.

Lynch defended her right to ask questions of the candidate: 'Does that mean that he thinks that all other women and all ordinary voters don't have an opinion and don't want answers to questions?' she asked.

Gallagher first became known as a panelist on the television programme Dragon's Den, where budding entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas in a bid to attract investment.

Revelations about his business practices were particularly damaging to Gallagher whose positive business mantra was pitted against the more ideas-based message about social solidarity and citizenship of Michel D Higgins, 70, who has promised to renew the republic.

Many saw the campaign as a battle for the soul of Ireland. The business-led radical individualism represented by Gallagher, 49, was pitted against the spiritual and cultural values inherent in 70-year-old Higgins' message of social solidarity.

While the more traditional values have prevailed, it was television and social media that delivered that victory.