There is a strong case to be made for lowering the voting age and a project recently carried out by students in Gairmscoil Mhuire Athenry showed how young people are more interested in politics than the State cares to acknowledge.
Second year students in the school organised a mock election for the constituencies of Galway East and Galway West. The election was part of their Civic Social, and Political Education Action Project and was co-ordinated by their teacher Mary Cullinane.
Candidates from both constituencies, including Micheal Kitt, Paul Connaughton, Lorraine Higgins, and Noel Grealish, addressed students in the morning, followed by a question and answer session with students questioning the candidates on how the cuts in education will impact on school life.
Following this, the students cast their votes for the candidates in both constituencies. The results of this election for Galway East saw Fine Gael’s Ciaran Cannon top the poll and be elected on the first count. The remaining three seats went to FG’s Paul Connaughton, Labour’s Lorraine Higgins, and Fianna Fáil’s Michael F Dolan.
The poll is an interesting reflection on how Galway East may go as most observers and analysts agree it will be two Fine Gael and one Fianna Fáil, with an outside chance for Labour.
The Galway West result saw Independent Noel Grealish topping the poll handsomely with Fine Gael’s Fidelma Healy Eames taking the second seat. Fine Gael’s Sean Kyne and Sinn Féin’s Trevor Ó Clochartaigh also took seats, and, in what may be the only good news in this election for Frank Fahey, the students vote also saw him taking a seat.
Again observers largely agree that in this election Galway West will return two FG, one FF, an Independent, and a Left candidate as reflected in the student’s votes, demonstrating perhaps a quite healthy awareness of politics among young people.
