It was one of the most surprising stories of the General Election. Gerard Hutch’s run in the Dublin Central constituency ended last Sunday, amid a media frenzy in the RDS count centre surrounding the man who is known as ‘The Monk’.
While Labour’s Marie Sherlock took the final seat in the constituency, with 781 more votes than Mr Hutch, many were taken aback at the level of support he received – garnering more than 3,000 first preference votes.
So, where did this depth of popularity come from?
The majority of his support was based in his home patch of the North East Inner city, where Jamie Brennan works at an after-school club on Sheriff Street.
“I’m living down here for 40 years and the only person that I have seen knocking at my door is Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. He understands the area and he understands what’s needed.
“It starts with the little things, the youth clubs and the stuff you need for children growing up, to get them to a place where they’re educated enough to vote.”
Mr Hutch is currently on bail of €100,000 from a Lanzarote court, as a Spanish criminal investigation continues into his alleged role in an international money laundering network.
Last year he was acquitted of the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel shooting. However, the Special Criminal Court concluded that Mr Hutch had control of the gunmen’s AK-47 assault rifles after the attack.
Jamie said that Mr Hutch understands the people of the area and the struggles that they are facing.
“He can relate to the people and our issues because he grew up here. His dad grew up here, his brothers and sisters grew up here. He said – if I get in, we’ll come together as a community and as an inner-city parish to look at things.”
Initiatives like the North Inner-City Drug and Alcohol Task-Force and The Local Community Safety Partnership have been implemented to combat some of the most pressing issues in the area, but Pat Gates – coordinator of Young People At Risk in Ballybough – said poverty and crime are still rampant.
“There are huge mental health problems in this area, a huge amount of inherited trauma and adverse childhood experiences.
“So, there are really deep, complex and systemic issues with that. Governments haven’t really come to terms with addressing and breaking the cycles of poverty, exclusion, crime and addiction in this area and they’ve had many opportunities to do so over the decades.”
That’s the backdrop where you have Mr Hutch standing for election, in an area where there’s huge disenfranchisement.
“People don’t believe that the state is going to deliver for them, so I think part of Hutch’s vote was a protest vote.”
Read more: No surprise for many if Gerard Hutch had won a Dáil seat
