Meet your ex Fine Gael Candidate!

The best of frenemies

"I am running as an “Independent candidate,” they declare, and it's not just a statement — it's a detonation. Or so they think it is. Every candidate who declares this firmly believes they hold some moral, political high ground against the party they’re leaving. It’s usually a lot less complicated than that. Where the ideological sails constantly tangle with the selfishly ruthless winds of ambition, there comes a moment that embodies pure self-interest wrapped usually in not-so-carefully crafted rhetoric unless they paid me to organise it, of course.

It's not all that dissimilar to watching the amicable façade of a long-standing marriage crumble into irreconcilable differences. The passions of past campaigns and shared triumphs are reduced to a hollow shell of “what used to be.” This isn't just a parting of ways; it's a very public divorce, not so much a conscious uncoupling but a seismic shift where personal loyalties are questioned and political alliances torn asunder.

Meet Shay Culle…