Campaign Watch »

• It’s all over bar the shouting

  June 9, 2009 @ 10:09 am | by Kilian Doyle

  For the past month, this blog has been tracking the mad, bad and sad antics of election candidates across the spectrum. And now it’s all over. We feel empty, deflated and at a loss.

  Yeah, right. We’re glad it’s all over. For a few months, at least.

  Thanks to all for the contributions, comments and criticisms. Much appreciated.

  Before we go, we got a lot of stick over our earlier posts here and here about the electorate’s supposed propensity to vote for the best-looking candidates, regardless of which party they represented or what their policies were.

  According to an online poll carried out last month, 43 per cent of people believe a candidate’s appearance would influence their decision, with over a third saying they would vote for someone based solely on their attractiveness.

  With that in mind, we thought we’d cast an eye over the bevy of male and female beauties we featured and see how they got on.

  
  Left to right:

  Maria Parodi (Labour): Ran for Dublin City Council. Elected.

  Sarah Ryan (Fianna Fáil): Ran for Dublin City Council. Not elected.

  Toiréasa Ferris (Sinn Féin): Ran for European Parliament. Not elected.

  Clare Byrne (Fine Gael): Ran for Dublin City Council. Elected.

  Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fáil): Ran for Dublin City Council. Not elected.

  

  Left to right:

  John Lyons (Labour): Ran for Dublin City Council. Elected.

  Ross O’Mullane (Independent): Ran in Dublin South byelection. Not elected.

  Hugh Lewis (People Before Profit Alliance): Ran for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Elected.

  Eoghan Murphy (Fine Gael): Ran for Dublin City Council. Elected.

  Ronan Callely (Fianna Fail): Ran for Dublin City Council. Not elected.

  The results: Two of five women and three of five men elected.

  The conclusion: While the results are a tad inconclusive, we’ve decided to assume that the theory that people vote with other bits of their body other than their brains is, like most online polls, a load of nonsense. That’s our faith in humanity restored, so. What a relief.

• A picture tells a thousand words

  June 7, 2009 @ 11:15 am | by Kilian Doyle

  Here’s a selection of yesterday’s photographs of the winners and losers in the local and byelections.

  (All photographs by Irish Times staff unless otherwise indicated.)

  WINNERS

  

  Noel Gregory, a brother of the late Tony Gregory, embraces Dublin Central byelection winner Maureen O’Sullivan at the RDS. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  The Fine Gael Dublin South byelection winner George Lee is raised aloft after he was elected on the first count at the RDS. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  Senator Fiona O’Malley with Independent  candidate Mannix Flynn at the RDS where he was elected to Dublin City Council. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  Labour Dublin City Council election candidate Rebecca Moynihan (centre) is congratulated by supporters. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  Fianna Fail Dublin City Council candidate Mary Fitzpatrick (Cabra Glasnevin) surrounded by supporters in the RDS. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  People Before Profit Alliance local candidates Joan Collins (Crumlin-Kimmage) and Brid Smith (Ballyfermot Drimnagh) following their election at the RDS. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  LOSERS

  

  Unsuccessful Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin South Shay Brennan does a TV interview at the RDS Count Centre for Dublin. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

  F

  Fine Gael Dublin Central candidate Paschal Donohoe celebrates with party leader Enda Kenny in the RDS despite losing the byelection. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  Fianna Fáil’s Maurice Ahern, who lost the Dublin Central byelection and narrowly lost his seat on Dublin City Council, is consoled by Labour’s Eric Byrne, who was elected to the council on the first count. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

  

  Minister of State John Curran goes through the figures during the South Dublin County Council count at the Basketball Arena, Tallaght. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

  

  Green Party leader John Gormley arrives at the RDS count centre yesterday. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

• Why bother voting?

  June 4, 2009 @ 8:58 am | by Kilian Doyle

  Not everyone with a polling card will be voting tomorrow. Indeed, there are some who believe we shouldn’t be voting at all.

  The Workers Solidarity Movement anarchist group claims that “it is impossible to bring about any meaningful change in society through the electoral process”.

  WSM’s national secretary Gavin Gleeson argues that all the main parties have “identical” economic policies.

  “None of them has any intention of doing anything about the huge gap in wealth. And even those parties on the left who claim to be in favour of wealth redistribution know that it is impossible to do so without a fundamental shift in the power relationships that currently exist,” he argues. “Worldwide, the shots are called by big business and the wealthy elite – and they’re not going to give up their privileged position just because the rest of us vote for them to do so.”

  Do you think the WSM are bonkers conspiracy theorists? Or do they have a point?

  

• Something for (nearly) everyone

  June 3, 2009 @ 3:00 pm | by Kilian Doyle

  Enda Kenny spent much of today’s Fine Gael press conference fending off accusations of flip-flopping over Sinn Féin. Beforehand, he got the chance, uninterrupted, to make his final Big Speech, surrounded by Byelection Big Cheeses.  Statesmanlike? You decide.

  

  Meanwhile, the Labour Party has just posted profiles online of some of their first-time male candidates, after chivalrously, letting the women go first.

  On the Fianna Fáil website, European election candidate Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne – or some flunky purporting to be her – has a new blog post up. She wants to take her “passion for Dublin and its people to Europe”. And leave her lovely pooch behind? Heartless isn’t the word.

  The Green Party had a full page ad in today’s Irish Times – which you can also see here - featuring gushing endorsements from such luminaries as Eddie Hobbs and Darina Allen.

  Pah. That’s the best they can do? Lowly Independent Mannix Flynn has Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne and music legend Christy Moore on his side. Beat that.

  

  Believe it or not, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams is quite the wag on Twitter. His tweets are usually mildly entertaining and a far cry from the usual “I’m at a shopping centre today shaking hands” guff that most candidates post.

  An example: “The sunshine continues. So does the election. Christy Burke has his arm in a sling. Hurt it opening a gate. Anything for a vote.”

  Or what about: “’Down along Thomas Street and by God in a jiffy I had my arms around her beyond in the park’. I sang as we drove along Thomas Street.” Wouldn’t you love to bug that car?

  Follow him here.

  Elsewhere on Twitter, an anonymous poster purporting to be “presiding officer somewhere in the North West” promises they will be posting about their experiences of polling day here. Expect plenty of tweets about “steady flows of voters” and people’s excuses for leaving their polling cards at home throughout the day.

• Bertie dances to a different tune

  @ 9:24 am | by Kilian Doyle

  Our esteemed former taoiseach Bertie Ahern was never renowned for his grasp of grammar. Indeed, he gave George W. Bush a run for his money in terms of mangling the English language.

  It appears little has changed since he trundled off into semi-retirement. He has been shoving leaflets through letterboxes in Dublin Central exhorting punters to vote for Fianna Fail candidates, including his brother Maurice, on Friday.

  As you can see from this leaflet uncovered by Rick O’Shea, not only has he fallen into the “bye-election” trap, but he is under the impression candidates will be dancing for their suppers on June 5th and voters will have to mark their scores on “ballet” papers. Oh dear.

  

  In fairness to Bertie, it’s probably a minion’s fault. Still, that’s not going to stop us from “throwing white elephants and red herrings” about, as he might say himself.

• An example to the big boys (and girls)

  May 30, 2009 @ 11:52 am | by Kilian Doyle

  It’s probably a bit late for candidates to start thinking about campaign videos, but we were really struck by one we found on Irish Election from Lech Szczecinski, an Independent running for Dublin City council in the South-West Inner City ward.

  Using a simple yet engaging concept,  it is an example to all campaigners on limited budgets.  And those swimming in cash too. Lech admits he cannot doorstep 16,000 voters, so this is shot from the doorsteppees point of view.

  He comes across as personable, intelligent, likeable and trustworthy. We don’t know anything about his former life in Poland, but he reminds us of a geography teacher we had in school who managed to make karst, moraines and oxbow lakes sound like the most fascinating things on earth.

  The iffy Eurotrance soundtrack spoils it a bit, and Lech gets a tad carried away with  the cheesy graphics at the end, but you can’t have everything.

  

  Lech makes the point that some 10 per cent of Ireland’s residents are non-nationals. As Ruadhán Mac Cormaic writes in The Irish Times today, immigrants are beginning to make their political mark on the Irish landscape. He notes that this year, more than 40 foreign candidates from some 13 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the US are standing, 30 of whom were selected by the main parties (only Sinn Féin has none).

  So, do you think immigrant voters could upset long-standing voting patterns? And have the main political parties done enough to address their concerns and tap into this demographic?

• Equality of the sexes

  May 28, 2009 @ 1:40 pm | by Kilian Doyle

  We’ve had a bit of grief over our previous post about the foxiest female election candidates.

  While it was clearly intended to be a light-hearted post highlighting the sad fact that many people vote with bits of their anatomy other than their brains, some readers failed to see it like this and asked would we treat men the same way.

  The answer, as you can see below, is yes.

  Others called for the balance to be redressed by the publication of a similar photomontage of handsome male candidates. Again, their wish is our command.

  Before any of these five fine things get too big for their boots, we must point out that this is most certainly not a definitive list. We just pestered a few female colleagues, one of whom, as you can tell, has a thing for the unshaven look.

  

  L-R John Lyons (Labour), Ross O’Mullane (Independent), Hugh Lewis (People Before Profit Alliance), Eoghan Murphy (Fine Gael), Ronan Callely (Fianna Fail)

  Everyone happy now?

  campaignwatch@irishtimes.com

• Spin or substance

  @ 11:54 am | by Kilian Doyle

  Here’s a quote from Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin yesterday on Fianna Fáil’s chances in the forthcoming elections.

  “I certainly don’t believe all the really dire and disastrous predictions that are there, it’s certainly not going to be as bad as that.”

  Spin or substance?

  Meanwhile, up in the North West constituency, Libertas leader Declan Ganley claims his party is on the rise. ”We have seen an almost incredible momentum shift. The West is waking. People are taking notice. The choice is becoming clear.”

  Same question.

• Online campaigning: visionary or window-dressing? Discuss

  @ 10:16 am | by Kilian Doyle

  Labour candidate in the Tallaght ward for the South Dublin County Council election Dermot Looney has issued a brave boast. He claims that his online campaign is the “biggest and best” out of several thousand local election candidates in Ireland.

  Them’s fighting words, fella. Methinks the Greens, who seem to be on a mission to take over the whole Internet, may have a thing or two to say about that.

  To give Looney credit, he has been running his blog for years, with – he says – great success.  Not only that, but he has deftly cut the slaggers off at the pass by calling it the The Looney Left, which is a gesture of self-deprecation rarely seen among politicians.

  As anyone with even a passing interest in elections is aware, Irish political parties have embraced the Internet this year in a way never before seen, undoubtedly inspired by the success of the Obama campaign’s online mobilisation prior to last year’s US presidential elections, which changed politics forever.

  From MEPs with big budgets to lowly aspirant town council members, Irish candidates, like Obama’s team, are using every tool at their disposal, from websites to blogs to Facebook to Youtube to Twitter, in a bid to reach as many potential voters as possible. And, lest we forget, fundraise. 

  However, Ireland and the US are very different animals. The sheer scale of the US, which has a population nearly 75 times the size of ours and 140 times the land mass, means it is simply unfeasible for a US presidential candidate to knock on every door or even speak in every city. The internet was therefore quite simply the only possible way to reach everyone.

  While the same could be said for the large European election constituencies, most Irish politicians do not have the excuse of being unable to cover all the ground, particularly in the local elections, where candidates are vying to represent relatively small electorates. It could be argued that no matter how visible their online presence, there is still no substitute for politicians wearing out shoe leather and pressing the flesh.

  Or is there? What do you think? Is Politics 2.0  worthwhile, a waste of time or a bit of both?

• Putting candidates out to seed

  @ 8:17 am | by Kilian Doyle

  A ”guerilla” gardener and a user of unitedminds.ie, the website of Independent South Dublin byelection candidate Ross O’Mullane, has proposed a new use for election posters.

  Mick Veale says the public can make use of pesky political posters by repurposing them from unwanted litter into very dashing window boxes. He has even provided a photo tutorial of how he lit up his windowsill with the creations, which won him a discount at a DIY outlet.

  When contacted to see if removing a poster was an offence, the Department of Environment said it was a matter for its colleagues in the Department of Justice, who in turn said it was a matter for environment.

  Despite his background in marketing, O’Mullane has not opted to erect posters or canvass; instead he is using his website to engage voters as he believes online politics is very much the future. “All the other guys are promising to respray the car, but what I’m saying is that we need to change what’s under the bonnet,” he said.

  

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