PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael and Independent Mary Davis have embarrassingly chosen the same election slogan for their respective campaigns.
Mr Mitchell’s director of elections and chairman of the parliamentary party Charlie Flanagan insisted the “Pride at home, respect abroad” slogan belonged to Fine Gael’s candidate, while a spokeswoman for Ms Davis said her message had been consistent for months.
Posters featuring Ms Davis and the legend “Pride at home. Respect abroad” had already been printed and would not be pulped, the spokeswoman added.
Mr Flanagan said: “It’s our slogan. The literature is in the public domain for some time now. The slogan, ‘Pride at home, respect abroad’ has appeared on election literature and paraphernalia for weeks. I’d be surprised to see it feature in another candidate’s material.”
He would not comment on whether Mr Mitchell’s posters had already been printed.
The election takes place on October 27th. However, Mr Flanagan added: “We are aware in Fine Gael of course that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”.
Ms Davis unveiled her posters in Dublin yesterday. They feature the candidate wearing a red suit under the words “Pride at home. Respect abroad”. Her spokeswoman said: “It’s been our message since long before Gay Mitchell has even been a candidate. Our posters were unveiled today. They take a considerable amount of time to design, produce and print.”
The spokeswoman said advertisements bearing the message had already been published in print this week, citing the regional newspaper the Sligo Championas an example. "Our posters are done: we're not pulping them. They're done: that's our message," she said. "Pride at home, and respect abroad, is what Mary has been talking about since she launched her campaign in May," she added.
