How a 16-year-old rental dispute derailed a presidential campaign

Jim Gavin had been chosen to represent Fianna Fáil, the Republic of Ireland's biggest party in the coalition government

A 16-year-old tenant-landlord dispute has rocked the Irish presidential election campaign in the past week.

When Niall Donald unwittingly overpaid €3,300 (£2,870) to his landlord, Jim Gavin, in 2009 neither of them could have foreseen their subsequent dispute eventually playing a seminal role in an election to choose Ireland's next head of state.

Mr Gavin, who was chosen to represent Fianna Fáil, the Republic of Ireland's biggest party in the country's coalition government, withdrew from the contest last weekend.

His withdrawal came a day after a newspaper reported details of the rental dispute.

Niall Donald was the tenant at the centre of the dispute

Mr Donald, now deputy editor of the Sunday World newspaper, and a friend rented a Dublin city apartment from Mr Gavin about 2007.

But after he moved out, two and a half years later, Mr Donald discovered that a standing order on a bank account had continued to pay rent to the landlord.

He contacted his landlord to ask for the overpayment to be returned, without success, and as he continued efforts to get his money back, he felt his attempts to contact Mr Gavin were being ignored.

Eventually he did make contact again and, he said, Mr Gavin agreed to return the money. He didn't do so then.

Money coming out of account

Mr Donald now says: "I must have cancelled one of the standing orders, and I failed to cancel the other one. So that money was coming out of an account that I didn't check. Now, a normal person probably would check it.

"People can say my stupidity has played a role in it, and they would be 100% right."

In the intervening years, Jim Gavin became one of the most recognised sporting figures in Ireland as the manager of the Dublin GAA team.

He led the team to unprecedented glory, notably a five-in-a-row sequence of all- Ireland senior football championships.

Mr Gavin also headed up a high-profile GAA rules review committee that was widely applauded for transforming the quality of Gaelic football.

Murmurings of discontent

The relentless success of Jim Gavin's Dublin team didn't go unnoticed by friends of his former tenant, Niall Donald.

"Oh, there's your mate Jim Gavin," they'd often say with a sense of irony.

But the 2009 rental dispute largely stayed under the public radar for 16 years.

Then in the summer, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin and his Fianna Fáil party leadership headhunted Mr Gavin from outside the political arena to represent the party in this year's presidential election - to succeed the outgoing Irish President Michael D Higgins,

The decision came as a surprise and there were some murmurings of discontent about his selection, notably from seasoned Fianna Fáil party politicians who felt someone from within their own ranks should have been chosen.

Some political journalists were also unsure about Mr Gavin's selection and they questioned if his "celebrity" within the GAA was too narrow to appeal to a much wider electoral base.

Jim Gavin became one of three candidates in the contest.

Micheál Martin has come under fire for his selection of Jim Gavin as a presidential candidate

Journalists became curious

According to Niall Donald, his historical dispute with the presidential candidate was being recounted in his Sunday World office, which is shared with the Irish Independent, when political journalists became curious.

The story was carried in the Irish Independent last Saturday and when Jim Gavin struggled to provide absolute clarity during a presidential television debate on the Irish broadcaster RTÉ the following day, many people were beginning to conclude that the game was up, and his campaign was in deep trouble.

By the end of the day, Mr Gavin had sensationally announced he was withdrawing from the presidential contest.

The shockwaves reverberated around the country and the fall out caused a political storm within Fianna Fáil.

Angry recriminations

Micheál Martin and his leadership team faced angry recriminations about their selection of Mr Gavin and the vetting process as well as their subsequent handling of the controversy which led to Mr Gavin's withdrawal from the campaign.

It means that Fianna Fáil is now on the side lines without a candidate in the presidential campaign.

In the meantime, a legal team representing Jim Gavin has told RTÉ he will now pay back the €3,300 he owed his former tenant Niall Donald.

Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly are the two remaining presidential candidates

Head-to-head showdown

Meanwhile, the two other candidates in the contest, Catherine Connolly and Heather Humphreys, will now have a straight head-to-head showdown for the remainder of the campaign.

They also had their own campaign difficulties this week.

The left-leaning independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, and her team had to remove a promotional video which included an image of the current President Michael D Higgins.

It was reported that he did not give permission for it to be used, in line with the need for the Office of President to be independent of any election campaigning.

Heather Humphreys, representing the second senior party in the Irish government Fine Gael, was also on the back foot after a campaign video which was released after she visited Northern Ireland mistakenly showed an image of the Reichstag in Germany instead of Belfast City Hall.

It was quickly corrected.

In the Irish Presidential campaign, you need to know Belfast from Berlin.

You also need to remember that while a week is a long time in politics, 16 years is a long time for a rental dispute to derail a presidential campaign.

The Irish presidential election will take place on October 24.