Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Sat 05 May 2004Backhanders and low turnout at politicians' charity tennis matchLow turnouts are nothing new in politics, but we can only hope the electorate does better on June 11th than its public representatives did at a charity tennis match yesterday.Whereas Michael McDowell, Ruairí Quinn, Eoin Ryan and John Gormley were all declared candidates for a game of politically mixed doubles in Donnybrook, only a miserable 50 per cent (Ryan and Gormley) exercised their mandate. And of those, Ryan had to leave early, clearly reluctant to take his eye off the ball for long in the ongoing grudge match with Royston Brady.