{"id":67414,"date":"2025-10-08T15:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/67414\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:36:08","slug":"bertie-ahern-presidential-bid-would-have-been-bruising-for-him-says-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/67414\/","title":{"rendered":"Bertie Ahern presidential bid would have been ‘bruising’ for him, says Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Bertie Ahern had been chosen as Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s presidential candidate, it would have been \u201cbruising\u201d for him, Miche\u00e1l Martin has said.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach and Fianna F\u00e1il leader was speaking after dealing with the fallout of his party\u2019s presidential candidate, Jim Gavin, dramatically withdrawing from the race.<\/p>\n

The move came after the Irish Independent reported claims from a tenant who said he had failed to recover more than \u20ac3,000 in overpaid rent from Mr Gavin 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il members have been expressing their disappointment and frustration since, prompting questions about Mr Martin\u2019s leadership as he had publicly backed Mr Gavin over party politicians.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said he accepted the desire from his party that they would run a candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did recommend that, I\u2019m not responsible for everything that unfolded, obviously, because we would have been totally unaware of the issue despite very comprehensive due diligence,\u201d he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.<\/p>\n

He said, before the summer recess, they did not have a candidate and \u201cno one\u201d in the party expressed an interest in running for the presidency until the end of July.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said this included MEP Billy Kelleher, who would go on to contest against Mr Gavin for the party\u2019s election nominee.<\/p>\n

He narrowly lost to Mr Gavin in early September in a vote by the Fianna F\u00e1il parliamentary party.<\/p>\n

Others who have said publicly they wanted to win the Fianna F\u00e1il nomination include former Taoiseach and Fianna F\u00e1il leader Bertie Ahern; former Fianna F\u00e1il minister Mary Hanafin; and former singer and campaigner Bob Geldof.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Bertie would have made it, nothing against Bertie at all, I have great respect for Bertie Ahern because of what he did for the peace process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the single greatest achievements in Irish society, that peace process, and he deserves huge credit for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been incredibly bruising for him. I don\u2019t know why he would want to bring it upon himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Mr Gavin\u2019s issue was one issue and one situation and referred to the \u201cenormity\u201d of what would be \u201cchurned out\u201d against Mr Ahern.<\/p>\n

Asked about a query Fianna F\u00e1il received from the Irish Independent on September 8 about a tenant issue with Mr Gavin, Mr Martin said: \u201c\u2018Are you aware of\u2019 was the type of question and the answer was, \u2018no, we\u2019re not\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the issue was put to Mr Gavin, and he denied it.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said: \u201cThere were other rumours as well, and this is very difficult for people who put themselves forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had not spoken to Mr Gavin since Sunday, but he would.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very sorry for him. It\u2019s been very traumatic for him because this is a man who has achieved a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Tenant<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Tenant owed \u20ac3,300 says he feels sorry for Jim Gavin<\/p>\n

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

Mr Gavin\u2019s withdrawal less than three weeks before polling day means his name will remain on the ballot paper.<\/p>\n

Just two candidates are left in the race for the presidency: left-wing independent Catherine Connolly, who is backed by various opposition parties, including Sinn F\u00e9in; and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys, a former social protection minister.<\/p>\n

Polling day is on Friday, October 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Bertie Ahern had been chosen as Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s presidential candidate, it would have been \u201cbruising\u201d for him,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-67414","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\/67414","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=67414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}