“Lets make the seat count” -Barry Caesar Hunt (Ex Apprentice Contestant) -Independent -Dublin West By-Election November 2, 2011

From the 2011 Dublin West By-Election the Litir Um Thoghchan from former Apprentice contestant Barry Caesar Hunt who was running as an Independent. He polled 775 votes.

Geraldine Kennedy (large leaflet) -Progressive Democrats – Dun Laoghaire 1989 General Election March 11, 2010

The now editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy running for the Progressive Democrats in the 1989 General Election in Dun Laoghaire. Having been elected in the 1987 General Election in the wave of PD success, Geraldine Kennedy lost her seat in this 1989 General Election.
You will see reference to Mr Haughey getting an overall majority, a theme later revisited with success in 2002 due to their ‘Single Party Government – No Thanks’ posters and leaflets. Also covered are local issues such as the Shankill bypass and Dun Laoghaire Harbour.
You will also notice The ‘agreed agenda for action with Fine Gael’. Its forgotten now but the PDs went into the 1989 election with a pact with Fine Gael.

Brody Sweeney -Fine Gael -Dublin North East 2007 February 9, 2010

Brody Sweeney election flyer
From the 2007 General Election in Dublin North East, Fine Gael candidate Brody Sweeney. It was seen as a coup to get the O’Briens Sandwich man on board.
Although polling well, it was his party colleague Terence Flanaghan that won a seat for Fine Gael.

An Irish ‘Celebrity’ Candidate rundown (with links to their election flyers)

Given the interest in George Lee, (and here he is as a team player in 1981 ) thought I’d do a post on celebrity candidates. There have been quite a number of candidates with public profiles before they ran for election. Some with success, others with a total lack of success.

There are those who were Celebrities or well known to the public prior to going for election.
Amongst those from Television and stage came Orla Guerin , Frank McNamara, Pat Cox, Mairead McGuinness, Jeananne Crowley, Donagh MacCarthy-Morrough,  Dana ,former RTE reporter Mary McAleese and of course George Lee. Of these Cox, McGuinness, Dana and Lee had success at the polls

From Sport came such GAA men as Barney Rock, Seamus Kirk,  Paddy Lalor,  John O’Leary, Graham Geraghty, Tony Dempsey , ex GAA president Sean Kelly , John O’Mahoney and even former Mayo player Enda Kenny. Rugby gave amongst others  Dick Spring , Gerry ‘Ginger’ McLoughlin and Jim Glennon.

From other walks of life came Eamon McCann, Christine Buckley, , Tom Parlon , Shane Ross, Fergal Quinn, Colm McEochaidh, Geraldine Kennedy, Brody Sweeney,
, Adi Roche, Nuala Fennell, Colm O’Gorman,  Mannix Flynn, Olive Braiden and Ivana Bacik. Of these Parlon, Kennedy, Flynn,  Fennell, Ross and Quinn all had success

There are those that become Celebrities partly from Politics
The likes of Jackie Healy Rae , Richard Boyd-Barrett , David Norris , Luke ‘Ming’ Flanaghan and the Late Bernie Murphy.

Those that became more well known in the media after  political careers or election attempts
Such as Noel Whelan and Ivan Yates

The Judiciary is another area with a lot of ex politicians or election candidates,
Judge Henry Abbot, Michael White, Adrian Hardiman, George Bermingham, Pat McCartan

There are candidates too that gain national prominence for a small time because of their posters.
Recent examples would include John Bracken and Clifford T Reid.

Point is George Lee  was by no means the first and will by no means be the last ‘Celebrity Candidate’. Celebrity does not mean electoral  success either.

On the other side its rare enough that you will have Celebrities endorsing Politicians or Parties here. Duncan Stewart has done some work with the Greens.
Here John Stafford is endorsed by such luminaries as Dickie Rock and Barney McKenna. Whilst here John Colgan has a picture of himself with Esther Rantzen.
In the 2010 UK election each party had Celebrity backers.
For instance from Coronation Street Vera Duckworth and Ken Barlow backed different parties.
Labour had a leaflet with endorsements from amongst others Alex Ferguson, Ross Kemp, Eddie Izzard, JK Rowling and Patrick Stewart.
I’ve missed a good few too.

‘Orchestrating a better Future’ -Frank McNamara- PD -Dublin South Central 2007 February 3, 2010

Former Late Late Show pianist Frank McNamara from his 2007 General Election campaign in Dublin South Central. He polled 474 votes (result at electionsireland.org)
‘Orchestrating a better Future’ has to be one of the corniest slogans around.
The aim to “cut income tax to 18% and 38%” seems a long way away now.

Jeananne Crowley -PDs- Pembroke 1991 October 16, 2009

Actress Jeananne Crowley in her one forray into politics standing for the PDs in the 1991 local elections. She didn’t win a seat but got over a thousand first preference votes.

You’ll need to click on image to see it in a fuller size