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Cavan Monaghan during the Election
Feb. 21st, 2011 03:09 pmOkay, so I'm in the middle of watching the Hustings for Cavan-Monaghan. Represented there were six candidates.
Joe O'Reilly (FG)
Kathryn Reilly (SF)
John McGuirk (Ind)
Darcy Lonegan (Green)
Brendan Smith (FF)
Liam Hogan (Lab)
It's important to note that Brendan Smith sent a sitting Senator rather than show up himself.
Now, let me introduce the candidates.
Now, when I described Darcy Lonegan above, I wasn't overexaggerating. Her introduction was pretty much 'Hey, my name is... I'm the only Green Party candidate. Most politicians are men of a certain age and the population isn't so we need more women and other demographics in politics and that's my reason for running. Oh and obviously to fix the problems with the economy.'
Kathryn Reilly doesn't seem to be a candidate in her own right. Every answer almost seems to quote something that Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said in the previous number of years. She doesn't seem to have any voice of her own. Even the speeches where she's not reading off some piece of paper seem rehearsed and pre-plotted.
Joe O'Reilly has the air of a man practiced at ripping into Fianna Fail and in fairness to the man, he is known locally, and known as someone that you can talk to. He answers the questions and uses his right to reply well. He's going in as one of the favourites to be returned. He shot himself in the foot at the last election thanks to a couple of key issues but he's been solid.
Brendan Smith has done almost nothing locally and has been called one of the worst agriculture ministers of all time. He's managed to get his picture in the local papers every week but it's all for minor things, not for what's needed around the county. The fact that he didn't show up at the hustings was, in my opinion cowardly and for that alone, he should be denied votes.
Liam Hogan seems to realise that Labour will never win a seat in a country constituency and already has a slump in his shoulders. It's sad but it's true. Unfortunately, once you get outside the cities, Labour support falls off and while I can see a fair chunk of my Irish friends list support labour, most of them are in an urban setting. I have never supported labour. It's never really been an option out in my constituency.
John McGuirk is a polished PR man who, if he was in England (and obviously English) he'd fit well into UKIP. He seems to be anti-Europe, anti-immigration, anti-anything-not-Ireland. I have to admit that I don't like him, he just comes over as a sleezy operator. But that said, he's not one to mince his words, but again, he's reading the crowd and reacting to the grass roots voters and their hatred of how the government has screwed up the country.
At present, it's looking like the voting is going to trend towards 3 x FG and either 2 SF or 1 SF / 1 FF. Unfortunately, FG's floating 4 candidates for 3 seats, so they're splitting the votes. I don't believe that SF have 2 credible candidates, but rather have 1 credible candidate, which unfortunately means that Brendan Smith is probably going to be returned (and yes, Smith rather than Conlon). Greens and Labour never get a fair share of the votes, and Green definitely won't this time. As for the Independants, CM learned a rather harsh lesson in the 2002 election and I doubt that they are going to return any independants, and especially not one who helped Libertas.
The annoying thing about CM is that Cavan doesn't like to vote for Monaghan candidates and Monaghan doesn't like to vote for Cavan candidates. For a single constituency, it's extremely divided and I think it suffers for that. But there isn't going to be a solution to that in the foreseeable future.
Joe O'Reilly (FG)
Kathryn Reilly (SF)
John McGuirk (Ind)
Darcy Lonegan (Green)
Brendan Smith (FF)
Liam Hogan (Lab)
It's important to note that Brendan Smith sent a sitting Senator rather than show up himself.
Now, let me introduce the candidates.
- Joe O'Reilly is everything that you expect from a FG sitting TD, even though he isn't actually a sitting TD. He's been in politics for a long time, he's an ex-teacher, an ex-farmer, etc., etc.
- Kathryn Reilly is 22 years old, graduate of UCD and DCU with only 18 months real world experience where she worked in Leinster House as an assistant to Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and sat in on meetings with some almost powerful people.
- John McGuirk was Declan Ganley's campaign manager in 2007, helped run the No to Lisbon campaign and helped run the Libertas campaign.
- Darcy Lonegan is another youngster who believes that there needs to be more women and young people in politics, oh and we should probably fix the economy too.
- Brendan Smith is a sitting minister for Agriculture and long standing FF politician.
- Liam Hogan is a labour politician being sacrificed to run in a farming community - I wish it was different, but that's how it goes for CM.
Now, when I described Darcy Lonegan above, I wasn't overexaggerating. Her introduction was pretty much 'Hey, my name is... I'm the only Green Party candidate. Most politicians are men of a certain age and the population isn't so we need more women and other demographics in politics and that's my reason for running. Oh and obviously to fix the problems with the economy.'
Kathryn Reilly doesn't seem to be a candidate in her own right. Every answer almost seems to quote something that Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said in the previous number of years. She doesn't seem to have any voice of her own. Even the speeches where she's not reading off some piece of paper seem rehearsed and pre-plotted.
Joe O'Reilly has the air of a man practiced at ripping into Fianna Fail and in fairness to the man, he is known locally, and known as someone that you can talk to. He answers the questions and uses his right to reply well. He's going in as one of the favourites to be returned. He shot himself in the foot at the last election thanks to a couple of key issues but he's been solid.
Brendan Smith has done almost nothing locally and has been called one of the worst agriculture ministers of all time. He's managed to get his picture in the local papers every week but it's all for minor things, not for what's needed around the county. The fact that he didn't show up at the hustings was, in my opinion cowardly and for that alone, he should be denied votes.
Liam Hogan seems to realise that Labour will never win a seat in a country constituency and already has a slump in his shoulders. It's sad but it's true. Unfortunately, once you get outside the cities, Labour support falls off and while I can see a fair chunk of my Irish friends list support labour, most of them are in an urban setting. I have never supported labour. It's never really been an option out in my constituency.
John McGuirk is a polished PR man who, if he was in England (and obviously English) he'd fit well into UKIP. He seems to be anti-Europe, anti-immigration, anti-anything-not-Ireland. I have to admit that I don't like him, he just comes over as a sleezy operator. But that said, he's not one to mince his words, but again, he's reading the crowd and reacting to the grass roots voters and their hatred of how the government has screwed up the country.
At present, it's looking like the voting is going to trend towards 3 x FG and either 2 SF or 1 SF / 1 FF. Unfortunately, FG's floating 4 candidates for 3 seats, so they're splitting the votes. I don't believe that SF have 2 credible candidates, but rather have 1 credible candidate, which unfortunately means that Brendan Smith is probably going to be returned (and yes, Smith rather than Conlon). Greens and Labour never get a fair share of the votes, and Green definitely won't this time. As for the Independants, CM learned a rather harsh lesson in the 2002 election and I doubt that they are going to return any independants, and especially not one who helped Libertas.
The annoying thing about CM is that Cavan doesn't like to vote for Monaghan candidates and Monaghan doesn't like to vote for Cavan candidates. For a single constituency, it's extremely divided and I think it suffers for that. But there isn't going to be a solution to that in the foreseeable future.
