Villagers in Belcoo were left stunned over the weekend after election posters belonging to Fianna Fail TD Brendan Smith popped up on the wrong side of the border.
Cavan and Monaghan TD Brendan Smith is a long standing politician, and is currently a European Parliament candidate for Fianna Fail in the Midlands-North-West constituency in the south of Ireland.
The posters promoting his EU election campaign appeared on poles in Belcoo on Saturday evening, but were quickly removed again by Sunday evening. It is believed that the posters were wrongly put up in Fermanagh following a mistake on behalf of those erecting posters.
The village was already awash with posters from the Erne West candidates contesting in the upcoming Fermanagh and Omagh District Council elections, and many were surprised to see the southern politician’s posters erected.
It is also believed that the posters were spotted in Derrylin, Garrison and Florencecourt.
A local Belcoo man said, “The posters went up on Saturday evening, but they were down again on Sunday evening. I counted 17 posters put up in Belcoo and I heard they were also up in Garrison, Florencecourt and Derrylin. On Sunday, someone had come in and just cleared the whole lot – they were taken down again pronto! The place was literally a mass of posters – the local posters were already up and the Fianna Fail ones just filled in the gaps. It was good craic, and no hard feelings about it.”
Fianna Fail commented, “We understand the issue has been resolved. The posters were removed immediately when the matter was brought to our attention.”
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