The consensus among political spin doctors is that voters are bedazzled by the sight of a GAA player's name on the ballot paper and are suckered into scrawling a '1' beside their name.
History proves this isn't always so. Shane Curran should tread carefully.
Today's episode of The Racket featured a discussion on this very topic:
Graham Geraghty
Before the 2007 general election, Ardal O'Hanlon fronted a programme for RTE called 'So, you want to be Taoiseach', which explored the nature of Irish politics in a loving rather than a caustic way.
Matters turned to the traditional vote-pulling power of the renowned ex-GAA player.
Conventional wisdom decreed that voters were bedazzled by the sight of a lad who had been there and done that for the county on the ballot paper and were inevitably suckered into scrawling the number '1' alongside his name.
Fine Gael had thus executed a major coup by inducing the last Meath man to lift the Sam Maguire (he may well prove to be the last Meath man to ever do so) to run for them in '07. Geraghty was selected to run in the Meath West constituency.
On the O'Hanlon programme, talking head and future Irish Times columnist Sarah Carey said that 'Graham Geraghty could run for the Communist party in Meath and he'd probably get elected'.
Maybe that was the problem. He didn't run for the Communist party. He ran for Fine Gael.
He only polled 3,200 votes and was easily the worst performing of the three Fine Gaelers. In a three seat constituency, six candidates succeeded in garnering more votes than him and he was eliminated on the fourth count.
He did this later in the summer, though.
John O'Leary
The 2007 general election was one for the traditionalists. Having been berated for the state of the health service and what not on Joe Duffy for five solid years, Fianna Fáil miraculously rallied to within inches of an overall majority in the final week of the campaign.
Enda Kenny, brandishing a contract, had revived Fine Gael after their 2002 meltdown in spite of his own television performances. Labour did shite and the PDs even worse.
And the faces of ex-GAA players were being plastered all over posters. Graham Geraghty was not the only former All-Ireland winning captain to run in 2007.
In Dublin North, John O'Leary was recruited to be part of 'Bertie's team' in that year's election. This was in the days when Fianna Fáil candidates bigged up their association with Bertie Ahern.
In a Fianna Fáil stronghold, he performed better than his Meath counterpart but was beaten out by his party colleagues Michael Kennedy and Darragh O'Brien.
Padraig Horan
The civil war parties leaned on some tried and tested strategies for the Laois-Offaly 1984 by-election.
Fine Gael picked an All-Ireland winning hurler and Fianna Fáil went for the son of the man whose recent death had created the vacancy.
And if there's one archetypal candidate whom even a GAA hero struggles to compete with, it's the son of the guy whose death has created the vacancy.
Padraig Horan captained Offaly to the All-Ireland title in 1981 and would win another All-Ireland the following year. But he was soundly beaten by the son of Ber Cowen.
Sean Purcell
The voters of Galway East were not wowed by the presence of one of the greatest Gaelic footballer of all time on the ballot paper in 1961 and 1965.
In '61, Purcell was pipped to the final seat by his running mate Bridget Hogan-O'Higgins. In the 1965 election, he managed a paltry 1,381 votes. This was his final attempt to make it to Leinster House.
Eamonn Cregan
Back in the early 80s, when general elections occurred roughly once a fortnight, Eamonn Cregan, then in the twilight of a hugely successful inter-county career stood for Charlie Haughey's embattled Fianna Fail party.
Fianna Fáil lost power, for a few months anyhow, and Cregan failed badly in the election, gaining only 1,636. Nine candidates polled more first preference votes.
Cregan backed away from politics and stepped into considerably more successful managerial career.
Barney Rock
The PDs were a shiny, urban-centric grouping thought to prefer glitzier show business types rather than heroes on the GAA field.
They were also deeply middle class and committed to a 'libertarian' economic platform. In the 1991 local elections, they dipped their toe into the Finglas electoral area.
The man whose goal proved decisive in the 1983 All-Ireland final became the first man to run for the PDs in Finglas. Barney Rock had just retired from the inter-county scene but was still playing for the Kickhams.
The PDs didn't run another candidate in Finglas for over a decade. Naturally, Rock didn't go on to contest a general election.
Seamus Durack
Cyprian Brady may have been elected in Dublin Central despite polling less than 1,000 votes but poor Seamus Durack didn't have a Bertie Ahern style running mate hoisting him up by his oxters when he pulled in the same numbers in Clare in 1982.
Clare goalkeepers and former Skills of Hurling luminary, Durack only mustered 934 votes for the FGers in one of the 1982 elections.
Brian Whelehan
Like Rock, he didn't reach the generals.
Team of the Millennium. Hurler of the Year awards. Numerous all-stars. All-Ireland medals at both club and county, senior and underage level.
But no seat of Offaly County Coucil.
It was taken as a sign of Fine Gael's failure to take advantage of the financial crisis that Brian Whelehan failed to get elected in Birr in the local elections of 2009.
He secured 628 votes and was well shy of the seat.
Thanks to @electionlit for help on this post.
Read more: The Cost Of Dublin's Domination Is Becoming Clearer
