Paul Hosford: How a single vote paved the way for Holly Cairns to lead the Social Democrats
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A woman who was urged by her two daughters to vote might be the reason Holly Cairns will lead the Social Democrats into the European and local elections in June.
Ms Cairns’ unlikely win in the 2020 general election, which made her a national figure, might not have happened had she not been elected to Cork County Council eight months previously.
In that election, she pipped Independent candidate Finbarr Harrington by just one vote — flipping the outcome of the first full count, when the latter had been deemed elected by the same margin.
Ms Cairns, who became the party’s leader in March 2023, told the that the drama on the 16th floor of Cork County Hall was something of a blur now, but that it encapsulates the small margins in politics.
“Even when it’s mentioned, I get a shiver,” Ms Cairns said. “I think we just hear that all the time from people: ‘What’s the point of voting?’
“Those days themselves are a bit of a blur, but I do remember parts of it and the things that stand out the most were messages that I got from people, some people because I initially lost by one vote, saying things like, ‘Oh my god, I was on holiday, I didn’t vote’ or ‘I got home late’ or ‘I was feeling sick, I’m so sorry’.
“And then there were messages from people when I got in by one vote, who explained the last-minute nature of potentially getting that vote, and I’ll always remember there was one woman who sent me a message saying that she got home from work, she wasn’t going to vote. Just, like, ‘to be honest, I just didn’t really see the point, local elections, it was raining, all of these different things’.
“But her two daughters — who are too young to vote — they begged her to go and vote for me.
“They’d been following the campaign on social media.
“She went and voted and that is, in my mind, the vote that got me through and I just feel that because of that one vote and then the people of Cork South-West getting me to here I always feel like... each person who voted for me, I’m really aware of the kind of risk they took in voting for me.
“Because it is a huge thing to ask for somebody’s vote and it’s a bigger thing to go and vote for somebody when the perception is they don’t stand a chance. And I just think when we’re going into these elections now, that is what we’re asking people to do — is to give us a chance.”
While Ms Cairns’ profile has been useful for the party, the focus on her has not always been positive.
Just recently, her plans for a home in Skibbereen became national news. That kind of coverage can put women off becoming involved in politics, she said.
“It’s unfortunate, sometimes, that I think there’s kind of female politicians being covered a little bit differently,” she said. “All you can do is keep going.
“I think that a really helpful thing for bringing more women into politics is if there wasn’t, for example, that coverage of people’s homes, addresses, and I think that everyone in politics deserves that kind of privacy for safety reasons.
"And I think if we want to bring more women into politics it’d be good if those kinds of things weren’t covered about about women in politics.”
Leading the party into her first set of elections, Ms Cairns is reluctant to put a number on the seats she would like the Social Democrats to win — saying that it is “about putting social democratic policies on the ballot in as many places as possible”.
Those policies include a €147m plan to increase paid parental leave to cover the first 12 months of a child’s life and to increase maternity, paternity, and parental benefit to €350 per week, up from €262.