Unlike European issues, SF's MEP candidate has clear recognition among her constituents, writes MIRIAM LORD
IT MIGHT have been like this . . .
We met up with Mary Lou in Foxrock. The reaction on the doorsteps in Westminster Road was, like, totally fabulous. Then we hurried to Dundrum to catch the ladies who lunch as they tottered out of Harvey Nicks.
Afterwards, everyone jumped into the customised SUVs and made for the Merrion Centre, before catching the teatime crowd hurrying into Donnybrook Fair.
Knocked a few doors in the Ranelagh redbricks – got a marvellous reception from people keen to talk about the struggle.
But there was no mistaking the mood for change on the doorsteps . . .
It might have been like this, but, of course, it wasn’t. However, wouldn’t it have been great to see Mary Lou McDonald, Notre Dame convent-girl from Rathgar and Trinity graduate, schmoozing the Drummie Mummies for their number ones?
Reports from the election canvass should come with a health warning. Stories from the campaign frontline rarely yield a true picture of a candidate’s standing with the public.
Instead, what is offered by handlers is a scenario most likely to show their representatives, and their party’s credentials, in a good light. Since the election campaigns began this month, journalists have been ringing up the political parties and asking to accompany one of their candidates on a routine canvass. Details are rarely supplied on the spot. This is because schedules have to be tweaked in order to bring the meddling hacks to places likely to deliver a favourable reaction.
On Monday evening, Sinn Féin wasn’t too sure if MEP Mary Lou McDonald would be doing any constituency canvassing the following day. She was giving “private” talks in the morning, but Tallaght was a possibility in the late afternoon. Yesterday, a rendezvous at a shopping centre in Killinarden was proposed.
The meeting place was to be the Dominic Shopping Centre, off the Old Bawn Road. The photographer got a little lost and phoned for directions. “Turn left, and left again, you can’t miss it – it’s plastered with Sinn Féin posters.” Mary Lou wasn’t needed for the earlier business of the day.
Party leader Gerry Adams held a press conference in Cassidy’s Hotel in Dublin’s Parnell Square to launch their manifesto for the local elections.
A number of candidates from around the country joined him for the event. “I’ll be Fear an Tí, so if you’ve any questions, put them to me please” said Gerry, after he had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Aping the catchphrase of all parties – including many Fianna Fáil local election candidates – Sinn Féin say it’s time for a change.
They intend to do it, according to the panel set up behind the top table, by “Delivering for Ireland’s Future”. That future was summed up in three words: Saoirse. Ceart. Síocháin.
“This Government can’t run a bath,” said Gerry. What is required is a “State-wide reform of the tax system.” Things are happening, but slowly.
“We’ve already had a partial realignment of our economic dispensation,” Councillor Daithí Doolan spoke on the local government end of things. The party is standing on its track record – unlike Mary Lou, who is Standing Up For Dublin.
They have great belief in their local government manifesto. Daithí said it is the document “by which we will be judged, it is the benchmark, and the road map and it’s a campaigning tool”. Sinn Féin hasn’t any time for Fianna Fáil, but it has no time for the rest of the parties either. The Greens – well, they’re neither here nor there. The Shinners are the original Greens. They were green long before John Gormley and his crowd discovered carbon credits and allotments.
As Gerry sees it, the Shinners want to be the vanguard rather than the mudguard.
Fine Gael aren’t much better. “I feel it in my gut that a vote for Fine Gael is just a wasted vote.”
Rose Carey-Walsh is standing for Sinn Féin in Belmullet. “The absolute anger on the door steps is palpable,” she declared.
Obviously, she hasn’t been to Tallaght with Mary Lou.
She had a team of canvassers waiting for her when she arrived at the Dominic Shopping Centre – a small amalgam of shops at the edge of the huge Killinarden estate. They were decanted from a Ford Transit van done out in blue Mary Lou livery.
Election posters are everywhere, but the Sinn Féin ones dominate. The two Labour Party local election candidates rejoice in the names of Duff and Looney.
There is an Independent candidate called Baby Pereppadan. Another large van did a sweep of the area, carrying the colours of Fine Gael’s Karen Warren.
A taxi driver opened the door in the first house Mary Lou visited. Three white plaster figures of a reclining lady looked out from each window.
“Can you do anything for the poor taxi drivers?” he asked. The Euro candidate had plenty to say about the plight of the taxi men. She was backed up by local councillor Cathal King, conducting his own election campaign in tandem.
“I was thinking of giving up the driving and going into politics, but there’s no bleedin’ money in that either,” said the householder.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” laughed Mary Lou with uncertainty.
She pressed for a vote.
“Okay chicken!” promised the taxi man.
Cathal King wore crinkled jeans and a pinstriped jacket. He has a way with words. “We need about three thousand extra votes this time. But the polls say we are going to knock out Fianna Fáil this time. Put the word around.”
Mary Lou adjusted the belt of her white trenchcoat. “I’ll be back in a while to talk about Lisbon.”
There were no knockbacks on the doors, just a few doubtful shrugs from the very courteous residents who answered.
“I do watch to see who’s coming around. None of the others have shown their faces,” said one woman.
Mary Lou has the recognition factor. “I was watching you on the telly last night,” said Margaret, who is originally from Kerry. The candidate launched into her spiel on Europe. But Margaret countered, saying she didn’t know what any of the politicians were doing in Europe.
“You’re not on your own there,” replied Mary Lou, adding that she “didn’t disappear off the radar” and Tallaght when she was elected to the European Parliament five years ago.
But Margaret had a handle on Brussels. “It’s Ireland you are representing – it’s not so much locally or Tallaght.”
“No, that’s for sure,” murmured Mary Lou, sensing the way the wind was blowing.
The van drove by, blasting an Undertones song.
Margaret, who said “I’m a republican by tradition, but I don’t vote Sinn Féin”, explained later that she has a son doing European Studies. “I read his essays.” On another doorstep, a woman invited Mary Lou in to see her baby grandson. The candidate went into sitting room and cooed, and little Niall gurgled away in his rocker, under a picture of Elvis Presley.
And what about the European election? “I haven’t a clue.” An elderly man gave out about Government Ministers and their Garda protection. “Who, in the name of Jaysus, would be bothered shooting them?”
Still chuckling, Cathal and Mary Lou pressed on. There was a lot of talk about local issues. When asked about Europe, the reaction was almost universal – know nothing about it.
The candidate understood. “Our message is really simple, we need a change. It’s the issues that are complicated.” One woman was exercised about a cut in the Christmas bonus. “Particularly bad,” agreed Mary Lou.
“It’s the rich that are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer” said the woman.
Cathal jumped in. “That’s the only outcome of capitalism, particularly in this country.” The woman couldn’t agree more. “If only the others came. I wish to God they came up to me. A chap from Labour called, to be fair.”
So is it a Sinn Féin in Europe vote so? “I don’t really understand it, to be honest with you. Did we not vote for that last year?” Mary Lou says she knows she will be in a fight with Fianna Fáil’s Eoin Ryan for the last seat in Dublin. “It’s a fight to the last, it’s going to be tough. If we manage to get a high turnout, I thing it will favour us.”
So there more difficult doorsteps will have to be braved. “I’m doing that – I’m in Ringsend and Terenure tomorrow.” But if she’s doing Foxrock, it’ll be away from the glare of the media.