Searching for the dream candidate

WHEN broadcaster Joe Duffy publicly disavowed any interest in becoming a Fianna Fail TD earlier this week, he drew attention to an enduring phenomenon in Irish political life.

Ever since parties became aware they had images to look after, they have sought to improve them on occasions by enlisting recruits from outside the fold: candidates with ready made street credibility or glamour or youth, or anything which the organisation's home grown prospects are deemed not to have.

It is a process fraught with risk, for party and candidate alike. The cautionary tale of recent times was Labour's attempt to add the then RTE broadcaster Orla Guerin to its Dublin ticket in the 1994 European elections.

Guerin was the very image of what most parties fear they lack. She was young, dynamic And female; she had become RTE's Eastern Europe correspondent at only 24 and had earned a high public profile in a short time. But her imposition by the party leadership became a model for how to alienate the grassroots and ultimately copper fastened the election of the grassroots candidate, Bernie Malone.

It is no surprise then, as Labour turns its attention to the difficult task of defending its 33 Dail seats at the next general election, there is little talk of parachuting candidates. Fergus Finlay, the man given the task of preparing the way for that election, concedes the lesson of bitter experience when he says "organic candidates" will be the party's first choices.

Labour is arguably responsible for starting the whole trend in the first place. As long ago as the 1969 general election, it successfully headhunted another RTE broadcaster, the late David Thornley who, with Conor Cruise O'Brien and Just in Keating, is remembered, popularly if inaccurately, as one of the three parachutists recruited to sweep Labour into a new decade.

JUSTIN KEATING, who in fact had rejoined the party in 1966 upon leaving RTE, insists it was personal conviction more than anything else that led all three into politics.

"David was a brilliant broadcaster and I know he was approached by more than one party, but he was a convinced socialist, as we all were, he says.

Keating recalls that the trio "created a stir" on the political scene of the time and particularly "frightened the hell out of Fianna Fail". This might explain why Fianna Fail has ever since been associated with more headhunting rumours than any other party.

Labour has not been alone in mismanaging the parachute exercise. Fianna Fail's "capture" of the respected Rape Crisis Centre director, Olive Braiden, backfired when the party's traditionalists didn't vote for her in the 1994 European elections.

Ms Braiden, who was approached by the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, was a dream candidate for a party struggling with its soul, a woman who combined impeccable liberal credentials with a personally conservative family life.

But her liberal associations were too much for many grassroots Fianna Fail supporters, and there are those on the left of the party who believe she was treated badly during the campaign.

She has maintained a dignified silence since then, though this may have been the price for her return to the fold of women's welfare, where association with Fianna Fail can still carry a stigma.

Fianna Fail has recently been trawling the traditional fishing grounds of the GAA for potential candidates and, with or without Dublin footballers, the need to win back seats in the capital is a priority. Dublin South East and Dun Laoghaire, in particular, are constituencies where the party might be prepared to go outside its own ranks for young, attractive candidates.

Along with sport, the world of journalism continues to be a target for all parties. Even the late Veronica Guerin was known to have considered branching into politics with Fianna Fail, and Fine Gael has been rumoured to be interested in both Vincent Browne and Olivia O'Leary.

WHILE not contradicting either theory, Fine Gael spokespeople interested in say the party is less in mere public profile than in profiles built on local political issues.

And this is a line the Progressive Democrats have certainly followed in Louth, where the party is grooming a local GP, Dr Mary Grehan, as its general election candidate. Dundalk based Dr Grehan is an expert in.the pathological effects of proximity to a nuclear plant, an important issue for an area which sees itself on the frontline of the Sellafield effect.

More importantly, she is eminently acceptable to the local organisation.

But the PDs are not above trading on the glamour of a successful sporting career. Former Dublin forward, Barney Rock, tried and failed for the party, while the Waterford born former athlete, John Treacy, has been associated with its forlorn hopes of wresting back the seat that Martin Cullen once won for it.

Cullen's subsequent defection to Fianna Fail would make it a particularly sweet one to win back, but the campaign remains stuck on the starting line. Treacy has publicly scotched suggestions of his possible candidacy, and there are no reasons to think he has changed his mind.

Often, as Joe Duffy himself noted, the rumoured political approach may be little more than the suggestion of a friend. Entertainer Sonny Knowles once ran unsuccessfully as a local election candidate for Fianna Fail, but he looks back on the experience as an enjoyable misadventure, never to he repeated.

"I did it at the suggestion of Dr John O'Connell, who is a very close friend and a very persuasive man. I got quite close to being elected, but my heart wasn't in it, and it was probably a blessing in disguise I didn't get in."