Campaign Trail: CIAN NIHILL'Ssideways look at the election
While most broadcasters might say it is difficult enough to control a discussion involving all seven of the presidential hopefuls, Newstalk is going against the consensus by adding even more participants to its debate next week.
The radio station has revealed its debate on Monday will include not only the entire field of candidates, but live video chats for up to 10 people (through Google+ Hangouts) will also be incorporated into the debate.
Presenter Damien Kiberd will have his hands full not only questioning the seven candidates physically present but also incorporating live questions from members of the public watching together online in groups of 10 in the “hangouts”.
According to the station it will “enable listeners and viewers to get involved throughout the duration of the debate”.
McGuinness does a line in poetry
Michael D isn’t the only poet in the race for the Áras, as Martin McGuinness pointed out to Hot Press in an interview for the magazine’s forthcoming issue.
“I love poetry,” he said, before adding that he even writes “the odd poem”.
However, McGuinness said that he wasn’t ready just yet to do head-to-head battle in a poetry slam against rival Higgins.
“I wouldn’t even attempt to pitch myself against any other poet. I do it for fun,” he added.
Evidently, he does it to pass the time as well, as later in the interview he goes on to recite a small poem he wrote while waiting on a airport runway.
“Have you ever seen a Manhattan sunset from the window of an Aer Lingus jet? Glorious Crimson it was. Blackening awesome skyscrapers. Slipping towards Montana. Far away from Bloody Foreland.”
Crumbs of comfort for those wanting more
Despite the somewhat overwhelming number of debates that have already taken place, some crucial questions about the candidates remain unanswered, chief among them: what is their guilty pleasure?
Yesterday morning, the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Showon Today FM found some appetising answers. The strangest reply came from David Norris, who admitted to loving goose skin, crackling pork and "that wonderful crisp, fatty, fleshy bit that you get on a shoulder of lamb".
Others were a little more predictable. Seán Gallagher fancies the odd apple crumble, Mary Davis loves sticky toffee pudding, Martin McGuinness keeps it simple with potato, bacon and cabbage, while Dana admitted that after one truffle she "is done for". It wasn't all about food however, as Michael D painted a picture of his home life, describing a banoffi pie in his lap while he watched Fair Cityor Ros na Rún, while Gay Mitchell confessed to having a whole DVD collection of Poirot.
PJ puts the FF into Gallagher
Independent Seán Gallagher can’t seem to avoid bumping into the contentious issue of his connection to Fianna Fáil.
Campaigning on the streets of Dublin this week, Gallagher happened across PJ Mara, one of the most influential Fianna Fáil figures of the past three decades and former advisor to Charles Haughey, as well as three-time director of elections during the leadership of Bertie Ahern.
“He wasn’t with me,” quipped Gallagher with a reassuring laugh.
The brief encounter that followed revealed little to the shamelessly giddy journalists present about Gallagher’s true relationship with his old party. It was hard to tell if the two men had even met before.
“PJ, good to see ya,” he said warmly before quickly revising his send-off to a more formal “nice to meet ya”.
Watch the video at irishtimes.com/vote2011
ELECTION ONLINE: THE BEST BITS FROM YouTube
Mary Davis’s team obviously thought that there were some disbelievers on Tuesday night when she announced that juggling was her party trick, so they tweeted this video of their woman on Grafton Street in Dublin to settle the matter once and for all.
bit.ly/pvzuGd
Seán Gallagher lets loose with a bit of Seán Nós dancing while out campaigning. Unfortunately, his campaign team were not afforded the chance to steal the show. Watch out for one of his team being quickly ushered off stage for trying to join in the fun.
tinyurl.com/6ewz6pa
QUOTE OF THE DAY: MARY DAVIS
"What I'm more interested in is the people who are airbrushed out of society" - The candidate skilfully dodges a question about airbrushed images on Pat Kenny's show on RTÉ Radio yesterday morning.