Galway politician silences coalition colleague with 'mic drop' reply to dig

Fine Gael’s slogan for its ard fheis last weekend attracted criticism from some quarters, but a Galway TD was quick to put one of his coalition colleagues in his place with a ‘drop mic’ moment on social media.

The party unveiled a new logo alongside the slogan “An Ireland alive with possibilities” ahead of a speech by leader Simon Harris at an annual conference in Cork on Sunday.

In a post on X, Fianna Fáil TD Joe Flaherty shared an image of the new Fine Gael logo and slogan alongside an image of the South African flag with the words: “South Africa – alive with possibility.”

The image was from a marketing agency established by the post-Apartheid government in that country in the early 2000s, which aimed to establish a global brand identity to promote South Africa as a destination from tourism and investment.

“[The] new Fine Gael logo wasn’t cheap,” wrote the Longford-Westmeath TD. “But a basic Google search will show it’s not original.

“An almost identical slogan was used by a post-Apartheid South Africa to drive investment in 2003-2010. Success of that campaign debatable,” he added.

What was less debatable was the effectiveness of a reply by Fine Gael TD for Galway West Seán Kyne, who simply wrote “Dear Joe….” and shared an image of a Fianna Fáil poster from the last election with the slogan “Moving forward together”.

Alongside this image, he shared a picture of Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) members jubilantly standing behind their 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly Election slogan: “Moving forward together.”

There was no reply from Mr Flaherty.

Fine Gael’s new image might have strained unity within the coalition but, if the DUP and Fianna Fáil – the Republican Party – can agree on an election slogan, perhaps there’s hope for a united Ireland.