The 2016 general election has been sorely lacking in sporting candidates. Recently-retired Irish sporting legends have opted against stepping into the fray, bar one man. Step forward, Shane 'Cake' Curran, who is running for the Dail as a Fianna Fail candidate.
On the eve of the vote, the bookmakers had Shane Curran in a three-way battle for the final seat in Roscommon-Galway with Fine Gael's Maura Hopkins and running mate Eugene Murphy.
Considering his late entry into the race - his candidacy was only confirmed on 9 February - this is an impressive effort.
How has Curran found the experiencing of running? He's always been a social animal and thoroughly enjoyed the business of campaigning.
Three of the best weeks of my life. Brilliant, brilliant craic. Great fun on the doorsteps. It was great to get a feel for people's issues. It compounded the reason I ran myself. It was an amazing experience... It's not even three weeks. Twenty days, really, I had. And you lose a campaign. So, really you're down to a 15 or 16 day campaign. It is short.
A long-time Fianna Failer, he is scathing about the job the current government has done, particularly in rural Ireland. He believes they have proven themselves a 'national disgrace' and that anything good that has occurred in the past five years can be traced back to the work of Brian Lenihan. He is confident that both coalition partners will be 'decimated' on Friday.
They're going to be decimated, both of them. I think in terms of what they've done here to rural Ireland, they've been a national disgrace. To have a Taoiseach of this country stand in Roscommon and lie through his teeth. Take the A & E out of it. Then try to annex part of our county with another county and province. Take 607 jobs out of it. Strip and rip rural Ireland bare without any form of investment. And they've admitted that their policies in terms of taking away the powers of UTCs and local government have been a mistake... Any policies that they have got right have been on the back of the late Brian Lenihan's resolve and his foresight to put things in place. I think the people will speak on Friday and that will surely see the resurgence of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael/Labour being decimated at the polls.
Five years ago, sheepish Fianna Fáil canvassers cowered under the weight of public opprobrium. Listen back to Dogfight, RTE's incredible documentary following the campaigns of Charlie O'Connor and Conor Lenihan in Tallaght for a sense of the public mood back then.
Has Curran found that there is still residual anger towards the party? He has detected none of this in Roscommon.
No, I've found only empathy at the doors. I think the real anger is directed at the government and the policies that they have followed, particularly here in rural Ireland, where people are left in isolation, desolation and without hope. And without investment, without any structure for the future and how rural Ireland is going to survive.
As we've noted before, if one was to stand in the gallery of Dáil Eireann and lob a bag of flour into the chamber below, the chances of an ex-GAA player getting their suit white would be very high indeed.
However, not all GAA players have prospered. Graham Geraghty and John O'Leary both failed to win seats in 2007. We've written before about eight high-profile GAA players who failed to make it to the Dáil.
Curran acknowledges that his background in Gaelic football has helped open doors for him.
The GAA family is such a huge a wonderful organisation. It certainly was a huge, huge help. It opens doors for you in business. It opens doors for you in politics, obviously. It opens doors for you in life... The GAA is probably the biggest political organisation in the world, if the truth be known.
Curran foresees FF getting between 39 and 42 seats this weekend. How many seats will Fianna Fáil have in Roscommon come Saturday evening?
I think they'll have one. I've always said that if you work as part of a team, and you play as part of a team, you have a chance of winning as a team... I'm hoping there will be a Fianna Fáil seat in Roscommon-Galway after the count on Saturday evening. Whether it's Eugene Murphy or Shane Curran, it's immaterial to me. It's most important hat Fianna Fáil get the seat.
