Plenty of selfies and little talk of politics as gangland figure canvasses in advance of Dublin Central byelectionGerry Hutch says he is one of four candidates with a realistic chance of winning Friday's byelection in Dublin Central. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin Tue May 19 2026 - 13:20 • 5 MIN READGerry Hutch talks into a mobile phone that a woman on a flats complex balcony has handed him. It’s her husband who wants to say hello to the gangland figure and, now, candidate in the Dublin Central byelection. “It’s going great,” Hutch says. “I’m flying.” He pauses. “I’m flying without wings,” he adds with a smirk. Down below him in the courtyard, a speaker on the roof of a flatbed van is pounding out those very lyrics from the chorus of the 1999 Westlife hit. It’s a Monday evening and the skies over Dublin’s north inner city have opened as Hutch and a large group including his brother Patsy spread out to canvass around the Belvedere Court and Hardwicke Street flat blocks off Gardiner Street. The flatbed van is an integral part of the operation. It features a large billboard with a portrait of Hutch and drives slowly into every area being canvassed. Pop songs play and it’s like a political version of a Mr Softee ice-cream van, alerting people that “The Monk” is coming. Hutch’s speaking voice is loud and rasps like a saw as he orders his supporters in different directions. One balcony is avoided because it is home to unnamed rivals. It is the only time the murderous Kinahan-Hutch feud is referenced. Hutch looks like a hiker this evening – black raincoat, small rucksack and walking boots. He remains unhooded despite the teeming rain and jogs up stairs and across courtyards in that hurried way candidates who are running out of time do. In Belvedere Court, word spreads that Hutch is there and at every doorway along each balcony the routine is the same. The person comes to the door, a smartphone appears and a selfie is taken. “If I got a vote for every selfie, I’d win on the first count,” Hutch says as he walks along. At the top of the stairwell, he meets Lisa Doyle, a young woman who tells him all her family are voting Hutch. As a selfie is taken, she says: “I’m voting for him because we know him and he will look after us.”Gerry Hutch with Lisa Doyle at Belvedere Court while on a canvass in advance of the Dublin Central byelection. Photograph: Harry McGee Politics hardly features in the engagements. It’s all about connections and familiarity. One woman complains about rent increases, and Hutch is well informed. “Ye both got a tenner [discount] each,” he says to her. “But then rent went up €60. That’s €40 more for yous.”In another flat, a woman says the playground in the courtyard needs updating. Hutch reminisces about coming up to Belvedere Court when he was a child as it had “the best playground around”. “We used to come up through all the lanes, across Grenville Street, Temple Street and up to George’s Pocket,” he says. “We used to get run out of here. ‘Get out of here,’ they’d roar at us. ‘This is posh’.” He pauses. “This was a posh block.”When the group moves on into the houses and flats around Mountjoy Street, the reception is the same – people approach Hutch to shake his hand and get selfies. The engagement is seldom political. “Welcome to Somalia,” says one local, critical of the ethnic mix in the neighbourhood. While a career politician might engage, there is no comeback from any of the canvassers. Members of a funeral party in a nearby pub, all dressed in black, come out into the rain to get their pictures taken with Hutch. They cluster around him. “Send that picture on to my father,” says one of the mourners to the person who has taken the picture. All of this area is Hutch’s bailiwick, but he says he has canvassed extensively in Cabra and also in middle-class Drumcondra and Glasnevin. “We’ve got a very warm welcome up there, we’re very happy with it. We are getting number ones in the blocks of flats everywhere. It’s unbelievable.”Standing in the rain, Hutch sets out what can only be described as his non-political political stall. He says the cost of living, housing, special needs education and the cost of childcare are the recurring themes. He is quick to point out he has made no promise whatsoever to any voter. And if there are no promises, what is his appeal to voters? Do they see him as a Robin Hood figure? “I wouldn’t go as far as saying Robin Hood. But I do have credibility going back to since I was about 10. I’m 63 now, and anyone who knows me knows I’m not a bullshitter. I’m not false. I don’t tell lies, and I certainly don’t make f***ing promises.“I haven’t made one promise in this election. I tell people, if I get elected, I’ll come back and talk to them. I’m not going to say I can build this many houses.“If I get elected, I have massive ideas that I hope the Government will listen to. We can talk together. I’d have a way of dealing with things.“I have experienced things, I’ve been around a block, I’ve been in jail. I could go into jails and save the Government millions.”While he acknowledges a byelection is a more difficult election to win, especially given his problem with transfers in the general election in 2024, he still thinks there is a chance. Gerry Hutch with Siptu-member carers on a picket line on Tuesday outside North Park, Finglas, Dublin. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin. “There are four candidates in it. There’s Janice Boylan [Sinn Féin], Daniel Ennis [Social Democrats] and me. I’ve been watching Ray McAdam [Fine Gael]. He’s behind but he could be a dark horse. “I think I can pick up transfers, especially if I stay in advance of Janice.”Asked about The Irish Times’s disclosure that €500,000 had been placed on the Polymarket prediction website for him to lose, he says he heard something about it but knows nothing about that website and is “not a gambling person”. “If I had a few bob to put on a horse, I’d ask someone to put it on. For the Grand National, I’d put a tenner in the pot.”He adds: “I think on Saturday night there will be three horses standing at the count.”A smile forms on his face. “And you never know, you might see a surprise, you might see Shergar getting dug up again.”IN THIS SECTION