Warm welcome for Lee on the street

GEORGE LEE, Fine Gael’s newly-unveiled Dublin South byelection candidate, went out to meet the people yesterday.

And short of touching the hem of his cloak, shoppers in the Rathfarnham shopping centre could not have made him more welcome.

A canvass quickly turned into a procession.

The Fine Gael election crew, led by party leader Enda Kenny beamed ever-wider.

For now, the former RTÉ economics editor is Fine Gael’s election pin-up not just in Dublin South, but in the local and European elections nationally.

“The reports from around the country have been quite phenomenal to George’s decision to join Fine Gael,” Kenny declared.

Just 24 hours after he was selected to run, Lee was just a little nervous when he appeared alongside Kenny shortly before noon. He need not have worried. Raised in nearby Templeville Avenue, Lee was quickly among friends.

“I knew your Dad well,” pensioner, Chris McLaughlin from Terenure told Lee, who eased quickly into the role of a politician seeking support.

Used to speaking to the public, Lee is conscious that he has to listen as much as speak in the coming weeks. Canvassing with TV crews and reporters is usually a politician’s nightmare, with danger and embarrassment lurking everywhere. But yesterday prospective voters behaved like paid extras on a movie-set, delivering the right lines on cue.

“Fianna Fáil are out! Fine Gael are in!” said one shopper loudly as she came to shake Lee’s hand. “Say that again,” chortled the Fine Gael leader.

“You’re nice on telly, both of you. But you are much nicer in person. I don’t know which one of you to pick,” said another woman.

For Fine Gael, it is never going to be easier than now.