It’s that time of year again when we see all of our local representatives in the flesh — both on our doorsteps and up on poles! If you miss them on the doorstep, you can’t miss them in their pole positions.
The most entertaining aspect of the race to the council is the internal party battles. You would need to be involved in politics to understand that the worst and nastiest battles happen within the party and not between parties, which is an utter misconception.
When you see see Labour’s Sean Butler on one side of the road and Sean Ó hArgain on the other, you can almost feel the energy between them! In Fianna Fáil there is the McGuinness camp, and then there is John Coonan (who is not erecting posters, for the record, and is instead donating the money to the Special Olympics ). The Fine Gael camp has calmed down now that John Paul Phelan has decided to go for Europe — he is getting EVERY support from the party. Oh yes! The elections are going to provide us with weeks of entertainment between now and election day on June 6.
The European elections are going to be very exciting for Kilkenny with two local politicians — John Paul Phelan and Liam Aylward — running for seats. It would be a huge coup for our small little county to have two sitting MEPs in Europe — who would ever have thought that Kilkenny could produce such influencial people! And we cannot underestimate how important Europe is to Ireland. Whatever about Lisbon, and whatever anyone says, Europe has been good to us in the past and I’m sure will continue to be in the future. European grants are currently insulating the homes of the elderly in Kilkenny for free. These are grants that are available from EU funds. People just need to know they are available.
Farmers have also benefited greatly from Europe and although there have been some questionable proposals over the years, farmers have benefited more than they have lost out. Libertas’ Raymond O’Malley popped in to see me last week and tried to entice me out to see his placard on his truck of Mairead McGuinness ‘asleep at the wheel’. Needless to say I declined the invite, but listened to what he had to say all the same. He is running as a candidate for Libertas, although it appears Liberatas doesn’t agree with anything that the European Parliament say or do... draw your own conclusions.
The battle for the Euro seats will be most exciting with most believing that Aylward will keep his seat. All eyes will be on John Paul Phelan who is hoping to pick up Avril Doyle’s seat of Wexford. With Doyle having fully endorsed him, Phelan should have a strong vote from her area inWexford, and also the Carlow and Kilkenny region of course. Mairead McGuinness will also take some of his votes and she has traditionally targeted the farmers, who seem to have taken to her with gusto. However Phelan is also from a farming background and has a lot to offer in this area. Labour Euro contender also for the East, Nessa Childers, is in town today (Friday ) with Joan Burton and she is seen as small threat to Phelan. From Dublin, her father was former president Erskine Childers. I’m not too convinced that she will pick up a good vote in this area given the fact that there are two Kilkenny options open to people.
So bring on the action and the smiling faces across the roundabouts and rural roads of Kilkenny city and county. The deer in Jenkinstown think they have been invaded by a human, unmoving army.
“Please don’t shoot, don’t shoot,” they cry — “Well, promise me you’re number one vote and I won’t!”
