Michelle Mulherin made a game attempt to argue that her campaign to ring-fence a certain amount of All-Ireland tickets for serving senators was not about her this evening.
She made her case to a slightly disbelieving Mary Wilson on Drivetime on RTE 1.
Mulherin wrote a letter to Director General Paraic Duffy (straight to the top) requesting two tickets. She enclosed a cheque with the letter.
Sadly, she was about to learn the true cost of the loss of her seat.
She received a letter back, along with her cheque, telling her that increased demand for this particular final had led them to withhold tickets from senators.
TDs swanning off to the game while senators have to make do with shouting at the telly in the Quinns. This is unacceptable to Mulherin. It's one thing Lisa Chambers taking her seat in Leinster House, it's quite another to see her taking her seat at Croke Park in September.
This isn't about Michelle Mulherin. This is about a change of policy of the GAA at Croke Park which is discriminating against senators in the houses of the Oireachtas.
I got a letter back from Croke Park along with the cheque saying that owing to demand they were only going to now give to TDs. So basically, to my mind, that's a discrimination against senators.
As we noted earlier, the public has been slow to rally to her side on this one. The ineligibility of serving senators to an automatic All-Ireland final ticket this time around does not rank up there with the great injustices of our time.
Righting this alleged 'wrong' is low on the public's list of priorities, it would appear. That is our sense of things anyway, not having conducted any scientific opinion polling.
Wilson went for the jugular when she asked Mulherin if she was a 'regular' supporter. The warning signs were there when Mulherin, no doubt sensing where this was going, attempted to jump off the topic.
Mulherin: I'm a very proud supporter of the Mayo team and if you're asking me if I've been at every match, I haven't but I attended some of the matches.
Wilson: How many matches would you have been at through this championship?
Mulherin: Sorry Mary, can I just go back to a point...
Wilson: Just the question Senator Mulherin, how many matches would you have attended? Were you at the semi-final?
Mulherin: I was at the semi-final.
Wilson: And before that, the quarter-finals?
Mulherin: Em... No I wasn't at the quarter-final
Wilson: The early rounds?
Mulherin: Yes
Wilson: Because...you were at the early rounds, were you?
Mulherin: Yes... I was at one of the games.
Later in the interview, Mulherin noted darkly that she'd been told that much of the demand centred around Dublin. These discretionary tickets were not going to end up in Mayo.
Quite what is so objectionable about tickets for a Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland final ending up in the hands of Dubs is something that eludes us here but maybe Mulherin could explain her position more fully in the coming days.
We did advance a mild defence of her stance earlier by saying that the ticket hunt ahead of All-Ireland day is a Darwinian affair and that therefore she should do what she could to get a ticket. But, she insists this isn't about her.
She finished on a touching note by insisting she'd be in Dublin on Sunday anyway regardless of whether she has a ticket, 'shouting as loudly as if she was there'.
Listen below:
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Credit: Drivetime
