Producer/Director Máire Kearney from the RTÉ Documentary Unit went on the road during the recent Presidential Election campaign. Here she writes about her experiences in creating the new RTÉ One documentary How The Race Was Won.
Towards the end of the summer myself and Susie Condron from the Documentary Unit were asked to make an observational documentary on the Presidential Election campaign. The prospect was intriguing. It's always fascinating to work on a story when you don’t know how it ends. Historically, presidential campaigns have always been explosive and dramatic. The list of potential candidates was tantalising.
Bob Geldof, Conor McGregor, Linda Martin, Bertie Ahern and Joanna Donnelly were among the names floating around, as well as Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness, Independent Catherine Connolly and a Fianna Fáil candidate. It sounded like it would be a logistically challenging but incredibly interesting project with several candidates travelling up and down the country and debates featuring multiple candidates.
But it wasn't to be. By nomination day on September 24th, only three candidates managed to get on the ballot paper: Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys. It’s hard to get a nomination – you need 20 members of the Oireachtas to sign your nomination papers, a cinch for the bigger parties – not so much if you’re independent. Or you need to get 4 local authorities to back you – a route that many candidates attempted to go down, but none succeeded. Businessman Gareth Sheridan got two local authorities, while independent Maria Steen got agonisingly close to getting an Oireachtas nomination with 18 backers – falling just short of the 20 required.
This was disappointing for the electorate – and for the production team. With just three candidates to follow, we worried that there may not be enough interesting and varied material for a compelling hour-long documentary.
But we were wrong.
It turned out to be a memorable campaign – some would say for all the wrong reasons. One candidate, Mairéad McGuinness dropped out before the campaign began. Another, Jim Gavin, halfway through. A political bombshell.
Then there was the infamous Ivan Yates intervention, the viral 'keepie-uppies' moment and a concerted effort by some to #spoilthevote, as well as a US-style attack video from Fine Gael in the last week of the campaign.
With just two candidates running for the first time since 1973, it was intriguing to observe both campaigns at close quarters. We did our best to get as much behind the scenes footage of each candidate on the campaign trail.
Catherine Connolly had made a pledge to visit all 26 counties in Ireland and was constantly on the road - mostly without fanfare or entourage, being driven by her husband Brian or taking the bus. Heather Humphreys from what we saw was usually surrounded by a committed group of Fine Gael’s team and supporters. It appeared she didn’t have the same nationwide reach, nor was she given a chance to get up close and personal with the public in the way that Catherine Connolly did.
It’s undeniable that the Connolly campaign had energy and momentum from very early on, and the polls were consistently putting her ahead.
We met with Catherine Connolly in her hometown of Galway the Sunday before the election and were lucky to steal a few quiet moments with her in her Galway office. She spoke candidly about the campaign and the challenges she encountered.
Later that week she received a record breaking 914,143 first preference votes and became the 10th President of Ireland.
It was truly a privilege to have a ringside seat on this campaign. As Susie and I reflect on the past few months we can safely say it's not for the faint hearted, and that any candidate considering entering the ring in 2032 should proceed with extreme caution!
Watch President Connolly: How The Race Was Won on Monday 8th December, RTÉ One at 9.35pm and on the RTÉ Player.
