Jim Gavin withdraws from presidential election shortly after Kilkenny campaign visit

“I’m going to be an enthusiastic, energetic president,” Jim Gavin said at a canvassing event in Kilkenny, just two days before the spectacular collapse of his campaign on Sunday evening.

Mr Gavin made what would turn out to be one of his final stops on Friday, starting out at the SOS before moving into the city with a delegation of Fianna Fáil politicians.

Flanked by local, national and European representatives, the mood was high as Mr Gavin had appeared to fend off slip-ups regarding an unauthorised drone flight in the filming of a campaign video and a deleted photo with the Defence Forces Chief, someone not permitted to endorse political candidates.

However, just hours later, news broke that Mr Gavin owed €3,300 to a former tenant in a rent-refund dispute relating to payments made to him in error in 2009.

The resident from the unregistered tenancy eventually managed to contact their former landlord, but the money was never returned despite multiple solicitors’ letters and assurances from the ex-Dublin manager.

Mr Gavin’s response shifted from him having ‘no recollection or record’ of the dispute to eventually admitting that it had been ‘a stressful time’ for he and his family, dealing a hammer blow to his faltering campaign which led to his eventual withdrawal from the race on Sunday.

The Gavin camp were blissfully unaware of the brewing storm however, as the then Áras hopeful arrived in Kilkenny to begin his visit to the city on Friday afternoon.

After mixing with members of the SOS community, being served a coffee at the Pod Training Café and making an appearance on the centre’s Dreamtime Radio, Mr Gavin spoke to the assembled media with party members including Mayor John Coonan, Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere TD and Cynthia Ní Mhurcú MEP.

When asked about the scrutiny that he and the other candidates were under, Mr Gavin gave an answer that would age more poorly in the following days than he could have imagined.

“Will I make mistakes? Will we all make mistakes on that journey over the next few weeks? Of course we will. Will I be accountable? Of course I will. But now I’m going to keep driving on,” he asserted.

With the Fianna Fáil candidate’s withdrawal, the October 24 will now be a two-horse race between the Independent Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys.