Fionnán Sheahan: How Fianna Fáil’s silence during Ivan Yates smear storm could backfire on its own Coalition

It was the sort of juicy, unverified and chatty gossip that Ivan Yates thrived on and made his punditry a form of entertainment. When Jim Gavin dropped out of the presidential election race, there was a rumour going around Leinster House that the former Dublin manager had tried to withdraw the weekend before the selection convention against Billy Kelleher. There was an elaborate tale of Micheál Martin having to go out to Gavin’s house in Rathfarnham and sit at the kitchen table for two hours to convince his candidate to stay in the race.