“Here Mary, do you want a protein ball?” Tina Maguire (81) says as she opens up a small box of “Ferrero Rocher-flavoured” treats and passes one to her friend.
“Jesus, I’m only after doing loads of exercise and now I’ll be eating them,” responds Mary Bonnie (72).
The two women are sitting inside the St John Bosco Youth Centre in Drimnagh, south Dublin, having just finished an hour-long morning exercise class, led by personal trainer George McCabe.
McCabe, who has provided the protein balls, tells them “they won’t spike your heart rate” and jokes that next week’s session will be a “TRX class”.
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The ladies are members of Drimnagh Women’s Shed, which meets every week for fitness and yoga classes, day trips and various health talks.
Outside the centre on the Davitt Road, across from the Grand Canal, posters of Fianna Fáil’s former presidential candidate Jim Gavin still hang alongside those of Independent left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys.
Maguire, who usually votes for Independent candidates, says she will probably vote for Connolly on October 24th.
“None of them appeal to me, but I suppose she’s the least worst,” she says. “I don’t really think the president has much say anyway; they’re only really a figurehead.”
Bonnie, who would traditionally vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, says she is undecided.
“I don’t think any of them are good enough,” she says. “I really don’t. I don’t know if I will vote at this stage. I would have liked if that other one … Maria Steen, would have gotten in. I liked Michael D [Higgins] and Mary Robinson; they really came out to the forefront and gave an opinion on things.”
Most of the women’s shed members have lived in Drimnagh most of their lives. The suburb is in Dublin South-Central, considered one of the most left-wing constituencies in the State, with two Sinn Féin TDs, a Social Democrat and a Fianna Fáil representative elected in last year’s general election.
Mary Kennedy (79), originally from Portadown, Co Armagh, but living in Drimnagh since the 1970s,has been following the presidential campaign closely and plans to vote for Connolly. She has “always” voted for Sinn Féin, she says.
“Whenever she [Connolly] has been questioned on different things, she told the truth and came out and said what was happening, and that was it,” says Kennedy. “I was left under no illusion about something happening in the background. I liked that. She’s a straight talker. I had never heard of her before.
“I liked Michael D because he was nice and gentle and was well able to hold his own and give a good account of himself and he never let us down, which is most important.”
Elizabeth Maxwell (80), who would usually vote for Fianna Fáil, is another “undecided” member of the women’s shed.
“The two that are left, you can keep them,” she says. “I wasn’t going to vote for Gavin anyway; I would prefer a woman. But Catherine Connolly can be a bit holier than thou.”
Maxwell says she will definitely vote, but two weeks out from polling day she is “fed up with it”.
“I don’t even know exactly what a president has to do, I wouldn’t be able to say. I thought Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese were excellent,” she adds.
Chrissy Ryan (83), a former canteen worker for Dublin City Council, says she is considering who to vote for but is likely to go with Connolly.
“I would have liked two more candidates,” she says. “I would have voted for Labour years ago but now it sort of varies from election to election and who’s running. I know a man would be different, but it is nice to see a woman lead the country. I will vote, for sure. There’s no point in giving out and then not voting.”
Ann Finnegan (89), from nearby Walkinstown, says she is unsure who to vote for. Her family, she says, would have traditionally been Fianna Fáil voters.
“I used to go out canvassing for Brian Lenihan,” she says. Despite this, Finnegan voted for Sinn Féin in the general election and had no plans to vote for Gavin.
“I wasn’t going to vote for him because, what would a footballer know? That’s the way I looked at it,” she says.
“I think Micheál Martin was stupid – like, what would he [Gavin] know? I don’t think the selection has been good but I’ll see what happens in the next debate.”
Finnegan says many people in the community have lost faith in politicians, and in particular the current Government, as “they’re not fair to people”.
“It’s not working. They say they’ll do things and they don’t,” she says. “You could walk into a hospital and get seen to years ago and we had no money. Now you’re waiting. I can’t understand it when we have more hospitals and more doctors.”
Finnegan laughs that she “loved” the former taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey – “even though he was a bloody thiever, he was an honest one”.
“He got us more money. Last year they gave us [pensioners] €12 [in the budget], this year they’re giving us €10. Putting it down instead of bringing it up,” she says.
“They’re spending it in the wrong places. Bailing out the banks, helping out the likes of McDonald’s and the place is never empty. There’s people that live from day to day and some days have nothing.”
