Politics in Kilkenny is an interesting game to be in at the moment and everyday there are new faces and new names announced in the run up to the local and European elections.
Our local senator John Paul Phelan has just announced that he is putting himself forward for a seat in Europe and although this may come as a shock to some, the senator had shown more than a flighting interest in the seat following Avril Doyle’s announcement that she was to step down. It was a disappointing decision to hear, from a woman as capable as Avril but Kilkenny also has Liam Aylward representing us in the big capital and wouldn’t it be a coup for Kilkenny if we were to have two MEPs in Europe? Kilkenny may be small but we are not without clout - quite clearly! The European elections have just become more interesting for Kilkenny people...
So besides Europe what is going on in Fianna Fail. Minister Batt O’ Keefe was in town last night visiting schools and also launching the Fianna Fail election campaign in Kilkenny. However, how advertised this event was I am unsure as some local Fianna Fail councillors appeared to be unaware of the visit and the launch and were ‘heading out canvassing’ instead of attending the event.
Maybe the event was a little premature, as the Minister was announcing the election candidates that have been selected for each area. However, with the blip that is going on in the Ballyragget electoral area, the minister was not going to mention the fact that he was launching the campaign for all the areas except Ballyragget! There are still no candidates confirmed for the Ballyragget electoral area and it has left a lot of bad blood. It is understood that there are two candidates unofficially confirmed so maybe this might be made official in coming days. The press office was hopeful!
I have to eat the words that I wrote on the Kilkenny St Patrick’s Day Parade some weeks ago when I said that it was a dying duck. Once again some resourceful people (mainly councillors ) have come out and revived it and are doing their utmost to get the show on the road so to speak. And they have found a local celebrity (depending on your music taste ) in Johnny Barry who has agreed to lead the parade as grand marshall. Well done to all involved - it takes a brave person to attempt to get this one off the ground and then face the criticism of the public the next day. But if you don’t like it - put your volunteerism where your mouth is and do something about it!
Kilkenny has also being doing extremely well on the movie scene in the last week with the Kilkenny premiere of ‘The Secret of Kells’ taking place in Kilkenny Cinema this week. These guys should be very proud of themselves for putting Kilkenny on the map with this beautiful film made right here in the Marble City. I think we will be seeing a lot more of these guys in the future and even more of their movies.
