RORY Cowan has told how he “doesn’t buy into bulls***” and insists he won’t be fooled by Sinn Fein or People Before Profit ahead of next weekend’s General Election vote.
The Fair City star has weighed into the political conversation — and is backing Fine Gael who he reckons need more time to finish off the job they have begun.
Rory Cowan is backing Noel Rock because of the support the TD gave him when his mum was suffering from dementiaCredit: Garrett White - The Sun
And he has accused Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail of being the same old party with new faces full of arrogant characters.
The former Mrs Brown’s Boys star was in Finglas, Dublin, yesterday at a coffee morning being held by Fine Gael’s Noel Rock at Driftwood Coffee Co.
He is supporting Rock because of the support the TD gave him when his mum was suffering from dementia, before she passed away in 2018.
The 60-year-old is refusing to vote for the Shinners or People Before Profit because he believes they are dishing out promises they’ll never be able to fulfil.
MANIFESTO PROMISES
Rory — who lives in Kilmainham and is voting in Dublin South Central — told the Irish Sun: “I’m very opinionated and maybe it’s because I’m getting older.
“But I don’t buy into bulls*** and I see that coming from People Before Profit. And I see it coming from Sinn Fein.
“People Before Profit will never be in power to do anything.
“And Sinn Fein are promising everything and they’ve only 40 candidates. They’re not going to get the 40 elected.
“Unless they get into government — but even then, all the parties that went into Government before, whether it be Labour, the Greens, they all came out not very well because they find they can’t actually handle it when they get in there.
“I would never support Sinn Fein. I don’t like where they’ve come from.”
Many believe Fine Gael and Fianna Fail may as well be the same party because of many similarities in policy.
The Fair City star said he wont 'buy into bulls***'Credit: Garrett White - The Sun
NO FIANNA FAIL FAN
But Cowan reckons Fianna Fail — who were at the helm when the country crashed over ten years ago — have never changed.
And he likened many of their candidates to arrogant Padraig Flynn, the former minister who sparked fury among viewers of the Late Late Show when he gloated to host Gay Byrne about his £100,000 salary and moaned about the stress of running three homes in Castlebar, Brussels and Dublin.
Rory said: “I mean, people think we’ve learned by our mistakes.
“All the head people in Fianna Fail were there when Bertie Ahern was there and the whole country was being mismanaged.
“Don’t just put a new face on a poster. Fianna Fail was always that type of a party, saying, ‘Ah, it’ll be alright.’
“And Padraig Flynn who gave that interview on the Late Late Show, Fianna Fail was always full of them.
“Micheal Martin was there [when the country went bust]. And if he didn’t do anything about it then — if he saw what they were doing was wrong — why wasn’t he saying something? He wasn’t. They will accuse people of everything.”
He added: “I’m looking at it — I’m not homeless. If I need healthcare, I can get private healthcare. I know how charmed my life is, I’m very, very lucky.
“The economy is good. The unemployment figures are way down. They’re building more houses than they have done in past years.
“Are we better now than what we were under Fianna Fail? Too f*****g right we are. You see on People Before Profit posters, ‘Time for change’ and you’re just left going, ‘Why change?’”
“Things are going OK. You only change when you’ve a government like Fianna Fail the last time, then you need change.”
BATTLE FOR MORE CARERS
And speaking about why he was out to support Rock, Cowan explained: “My mother when she had dementia, she was entitled to seven hours care from the HSE each week.
“They said, ‘We don’t have enough carers’. So I was paying for carers. I could afford it, so I’ve no problem with that.
“But I thought to myself, the other 55,000 people with dementia, nobody can afford it.
“It’s a thousand a week to be paying out for it. I could afford it but so many other people can’t.
“If my mother is only entitled to seven hours a week, they’re only entitled to seven hours a week — and I thought, ‘That’s not enough’.
“So every politician I was meeting, I was saying, ‘We need more carers.’
“It was like all of them we saying, ‘No, we are sympathetic,’ but I knew well they wanted to move on and talk about something else. Except Noel. He listened and he would follow up about meeting the HSE and that.
“And I thought to myself — of all the politicians I’ve met, he’s the one who’s in it for the right reasons.”
ROCK FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL
Rock himself yesterday admitted he was under pressure, but vowed to fight for his political survival.
Fine Gael are lying behind their rivals Fianna Fail in the polls and Rock reckons the RIC commemoration fiasco has caused the party some major issues.
He told the Irish Sun: “It’s clear that the Government aren’t particularly popular. It’s clear Fine Gael with the RIC stuff has shot themselves quite badly in the foot. All we can do is pull back from here.
“I saw Leo last night saying that he wants a united Ireland. I think that’s far more the space that he should be in.”
Rock is fighting for his seat against constituency rivals Sinn Fein’s Dessie Ellis and Lord Mayor of Dublin and Fianna Fail’s Paul McAuliffe in Dublin North West.
The three-seater is currently expected to be topped by Social Democrats’ Roisin Shorthall — leaving the other trio battling for the two other places.
'WON'T BE BULLIED'
Rock has recently been targeted with derogatory comments in a Fianna Fail social media group — but he insists he will not be bullied.
He said: “I’ve seen this repetitively throughout my time.
“Obviously, this is not a Fine Gael area and some people believe I don’t have a right to have a seat in this area. And that is their prerogative.
“We’ve seen publicised incidents where we saw a rival group taking down my posters — we have photographic evidence of that.
“We saw a Sinn Fein Whatsapp group calling me various things. And now we saw a Fianna Fail Whatsapp group saying the exact same thing.
“But I won’t be bullied off the pitch. I have to stand up for the people who are often marginalised or kicked around by the system or the state.
“So, I’m well used to standing up for others. So I can certainly stand up for myself.
“People want to see positive politics with actual ideas behind them.
“What they don’t want to see is petty name-calling and nonsense politics. And I think anybody who does engage in that, I think inevitably it reflects negatively on them.
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