{"id":25236,"date":"2025-09-16T16:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/25236\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:22:07","slug":"jim-gavin-54-says-he-can-relate-to-young-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/25236\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Gavin, 54, says he can relate to young people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presidential candidate Jim Gavin has said he can relate to young people as he is \u201ca young man\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old said he was proud to represent Fianna F\u00e1il and is a member of the party.<\/p>\n

The former Dublin Gaelic football manager and ex-army officer was asked about his stance on the triple lock and neutrality as well as his ability to speak Irish.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin became Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s presidential nominee last week over former junior minister Billy Kelleher.<\/p>\n

\"NationalFianna Fail presidential candidate Jim Gavin (right) spoke to defeated candidate Billy Kelleher during the Ploughing Championships at Tullamore, Co Offaly (PA)<\/p>\n

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Co Offaly, he said he had met 15-year-old disability activist Cara Darmody and other \u201cinspirational\u201d young people.<\/p>\n

Asked how he would appeal to young people as a Fianna F\u00e1il candidate, when many young people blame their struggles on that party\u2019s actions in government, he said that he is a young man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very much focused on the future. I\u2019m a young man, I can relate to young people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven today, hearing their stories, meeting Cara (Darmody), I\u2019ve a personal pride in them, seeing their ambition for Ireland, the ingenuity, their vision of what Ireland can be, and that\u2019s where my focus is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was proud to stand as a Fianna F\u00e1il candidate and that his grandparents fought in the war of independence.<\/p>\n

He said former president Patrick Hillery, a Fianna F\u00e1il politician, was also a family friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Fianna F\u00e1il member. You know, my mum and dad came from west Clare, it\u2019s a staunch Fianna Fail part of the country, and I\u2019m very proud to represent Fianna Fail and look forward to meeting Fianna Fail members and people who have no party on the campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he would share his vision for the presidency at his campaign launch next week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Hayes<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Gavin also said he was in favour of removing the triple lock for deploying Irish troops abroad, but said it was a \u201cpersonal opinion\u201d and as president he would have \u201cno political influence\u201d.<\/p>\n

On his Irish-speaking skills, he said: \u201cI\u2019m very proud of my Irish. I\u2019m not as confident, if I\u2019m very honest, as I used to be in Irish, I would have attended the Gaeltacht as a young guy growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very much part of me and, regards what happens in this presidential campaign, I will be getting better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presidential candidate Jim Gavin has said he can relate to young people as he is \u201ca young man\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-25236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}