How a photo of Limerick's Gerry Collins had a FF woman voting FG!

GERRY Collins' name carries a lot of weight in County Limerick, so much so that it even swung some votes to Fine Gael!

Many have shared fond memories and stories of the political titan following his sad passing on Sunday.

Fine Gael Adam Teskey recalls fighting his first local election in 2019 when Gerry Collins came to his rescue.

“I was canvassing a house and beside it there was a long passage way. I asked the people I was canvassing with, ‘Who is living up there? Will I go up to get a vote?’ They replied, ‘No, you have no need going up there as they are Fianna Fail, you’ll get no vote’,” recalled Cllr Teskey.

However, that didn’t put off the would-be councillor. He got in the car and started driving up the avenue despite the protestations of his canvassers.

“I met the lady of the house. I said, ‘I am canvassing for the local elections’. She said, ‘I can’t vote for you, I am voting for Michael Collins. If there is a Collins on the ballot paper I am voting for Collins, we are all Gerry Collins here’,” said Cllr Teskey, who quickly came up with a plan.

First of all he told the woman that Michael Collins isn’t in the Adare-Rathkeale Municipal District and then pulled out his phone.

“I showed her a photo of myself with Gerry Collins (pictured below). I said, ‘Gerry is a great friend of mine’ and she said, ‘If Gerry Collins is a friend of yours that’s good enough for me, you’ll get all the votes in this house!’” smiled Cllr Teskey.

Despite being from different political parties, Cllr Teskey described Mr Collins as a formidable force in local, national and European politics but “he never forgot the people of west Limerick”.

When Cllr Teskey opened his pub in Raheenagh, Mr Collins called in on a couple of occasions and wished him well on the venture.

“I met him down through the years at functions. I always admired him, he was an immense statesman, and an immense politician,” said Cllr Teskey.

He rang Mr Collins about two years ago and asked if he had any old political posters.

“I told him, ‘I would love to put it up in the pub as a mark of respect to you’. He came down the following week with a poster and we had a great chat.

“The poster is hanging up on the wall and it will be there as long as I’m there,” said Cllr Teskey.