Pic: David Kenny

To the long list of politicians inserted by Photoshop to events they never attended add Holly Cairns, the SDP TD for Cork West. Above is a leaflet being circulated by Sarah Durcan, the party candidate in the forthcoming Dublin Bay South by-election. 

Count the people behind her: the SDP’s two co-leaders and Labour Party defectors, Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy on the left and right. Behind them the party’s four other TDs. But look carefully: third from the left in the back row is Holly Cairns in what looks like a neatly coiffed studio shot, added in later by Photoshop.

And so it is. Because below is another leaflet (an official party leaflet!) using what must be an earlier version of the same photo:

Pic: Alan Kinsella

Just three TDs standing behind their leaders and no sign of Ms Cairns. What puzzles me is the decision by the party’s communications team to use the doctored photograph after they had themselves issued the original one. A most unprofessional approach.

Meanwhile in the by-election itself, Sarah Durcan looks as though she will end up a long way back in the race. There haven’t been any opinion polls so far, but she’s well behind in Paddy Power’s latest odds. 

I’ve been out canvassing for Labour’s estimable Ivana Bacik, probably the most impressive by-election candidate I’ve ever met. With under two weeks to go, she could yet end up top of the poll. 

Hat tip to David Kenny, who spotted the picture, and the wonderful Irish Election Literature archive of Alan Kinsella.