Campaigns Matter

Don’t begrudge parties for promising more than they can deliver!

The Irish Times poll showing very slight bumps in support for Fianna Fáil & Sinn Féin and a whopping six point drop for Simon Harris’ Fine Gael hit Irish Politics like one of those named storms we’re all getting used to on Monday morning.

TU Dublin politics lecturer and pollster at Ireland Thinks, Kevin Cunnigham had an interesting post on X outlining some of his thinking as to what may be a factor behind the shift as an indicator of the continued decline of Irish politics’ great rivals.

Cunningham linked to a clip of his appearance on Newstalk’s Anton Savage Show two weeks ago alongside former Fine Gael stalwart and mentor to the current Taoiseach, Frances Fitzgerald. In the tweet, Cunningham mentions getting into an argument (I’d be hard pressed to call it much more than a gentle assertion of a point he thought was important, to be honest) with Fitzgerald on the air.

The nature of Irish campaigns being heavy on policy promises – something I praised in these proverbial pages just la…