Joe Brolly believes Jim Gavin's 'pristine reputation' led to his downfall in Presidential race
Jim Gavin announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the Presidential race after it was reported he owed a former tenant €3,300 in a 16-year-old debt
Joe Brolly has claimed that Jim Gavin did 'all the wrong things' in his Presidential campaign and that his 'pristine reputation' cost him in the race to the Aras. The former Dublin GAA boss announced on Sunday that he had withdrawn from competing in the Presidential race after it emerged he owed a former tenant €3,300 in a 16 year old debt. And Brolly believes that Gavin's well-respected image proved costly.
The Derry All-Ireland winning hero has backed Gavin's run for the job, but speaking on the Free State Podcast, he said: "He's not stupid, at that stage it was going downhill rapidly. He's never been exposed to the outside world. If there was anything there to taint this pristine reputation, it was going to be an explosion, even if it was relatively small," reports the Irish Mirror. "He's in the GAA bubble, and you're protected in that bubble. If you've got a pristine image and then something small, you're like 'f*** me'."
And Brolly reckons senior figures at Fianna Fail might have assumed that the five-in-a-row winning manager required minimal vetting.
"If you sat down with Jim one-on-one, you'd think this guy is 100 percent. You would think there is very little vetting to be done because what skeletons would be in that closet? You would think that this guy is utterly reliable."
Brolly said that Gavin's campaign was 'all wrong' and was critical of his stance on conflict in the Middle East. "The President is the moral compass of the nation; he should have been far stronger on Gaza than even Catherine Connolly. He should have been reflecting on what the people thought."
Gavin faced backlash during his campaign when questioned about the Middle East, responding: "It's unconscionable that the bombing is still taking place when I believe that the military objectives have probably been reached for that military campaign.
"That was deaf," Brolly remarked. "It's not for him. It became very clear very quickly. The Irish Presidential campaign is exactly like a nasty Rose of Tralee. All of that sounded terribly false coming from Jim. It all sounded terribly contrived."
Gavin had been scheduled to feature on the podcast this week, but understandably failed to show after revealing he was withdrawing from his campaign.
"I'm very fond of him, and I have been speaking to him, and I have said that I hope everything is okay," Brolly remarked. "Jim's a guy who's used to hard targets. Here is a task that needs to be accomplished, and here is how we go about this."