Michael D rockin in the park for us!

It is rare that a Labour candidate wins on the first count. So congrats Michael D on winning another 7 years in the Arás. His values are my values, I believe Ireland will be a better place with Michael D as our president. He ran a positive campaign despite the questionable election and the personalised campain. Winning on the first count as a result is a victory. His visit to the south end of Wexford paid dividends in the end. He won 69% of the vote in The Faythe/Maudlintown.

But let’s look elsewhere for what else the polls tell  us. Gallagher was foolish to run again, Duffy was never at the races while Freeman has come in at a similar level to other candidate with a background in charity work in Presidential elections past.

But that leaves us with 2 other candidates whose level of support may raise eyebrows. Liadh Ni Riada is well down on what Martin McGuinness got as a first time SF candidate. Sinn Fein has built its credibility on strong campaigns where the members got out and worked hard for the candidate regardless, Ms Ní Riada had sunk a lot of money in terms of office and her interest in fisheries into Wexford. For all the Cork woman’s work, few members in Wexford lifted a finger in the last month on her behalf.  I never ran into any Sinn Fein canvassers, her name never came up on the doorstep. Doubtless when the European elections come round in 6 months Sinn Fein in Wexford will come out of their safe houses to press the flesh. Something tells me that this may be too late.

Most interesting is the huge vote for Peter Casey. If Casey lived in Ireland all his life, you’d understand it.  But he isn’t even tax resident here. His campaign was going from pillar to post until he had a pop at Travellers. I’d imagine that Casey has never met a traveller dividing as he does his life between Ireland, Australia and Atlanta. However he played to his understanding of prejudice, regardless of his ignorance.  Casey believed that he couldn’t be racist because in his view travellers couldn’t be a race.  And middle class people lapped this up.  More to the point when he attacked those on social welfare, it turned out that he didn’t know how much a person on jobseekers allowance received. However and as I pointed out to a SF tallyman today, if you add what the 3 dragons got today, it is equal to what Gallaher polled in 2011. Plus ca change, c’est la meme chose!

Figures suggest that turn-out was better in middle class areas than working class districts. Interesting that working class areas have been traditionally to the forefront in expressing anger at the ballot box. Is this a turning point? Are middle class people now taking to the ballot box to endorse Casey as a vector for their anger? What might this mean for Fine Gael and Dr Varadkar whose support for Michael D was luke warm at best?

What is interesting is that turn out figures in rural areas where travellers mostly live were much lower than urban areas where most travellers don’t live. So in essence we’ve seen an urban vote on a rural issue based on what?

Casey raised 2 issues about travellers. He said that they are living on other peoples land and that’s not true. Most travellers when surveyed say they want to live in a house. Casey also said that travellers are not tax compliant. There’s no evidence that travellers are any more or less tax compliant than your average settled person.

Casey didn’t run a ground campaign but used the media very cleverly to put himself in the frame. Where he goes from here politically is anyone’s guess.  What his success proves is that there is cohort that are prepared to ignore the political ignorance of a candidate if they pander to prejudice. The stratification that has occurred on the left looks set to be repeated on the political right in Ireland. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail need to sit up and take notice. So long as populism was seen to be on political left, it could be toyed with.  Now that it has infected the right, there is a clear threat and the parties that feel they have a right to govern need to address that, if only, from their perspective to avoid having to deal with SF after another inconclusive general election. I’m not so convinced that they are up to that challenge

You won't get me I'm part of the union.

One of my favourite clips on youtube is produced by the Australian Trade Union movement. It parodies the Life of Brian. It asks what did the trade unions ever do for us? I was reminded of that video last Friday in County Hall.  Wexford Council of Trade Unions organised a seminar where Patricia King President of ICTU met about 100 students and spoke to open an exhibition where unions met teenagers to explain what trade unions do. Ireland Rugby International Katie Fitzhenry also spoke to the gathering.

I’ve been a trade union member since I became a teacher.  Nobody told me I had to join a union.  I simply considered it important because I knew I’d spend most of my working life in a classroom. In fact I was a student member when studying.  A trade union joins people with a common interest. It’s a modern community based on a workplace. It’s a myth that you have to have an employer to be a union member. Anyone can join a union whenever and wherever they like. You don’t have to have a workplace to join.

Most people see a trade union only through an industrial relations dispute or talks. This is only the half of it. Union members can get reductions on contributions to health insurance, holidays in unionised hotels, pension advice, advice on issues in workplace among other things, I’ve benefitted because professional negotiators were able to get a better deal form my employer than I could ever have got by going in on my own. Sure, in that time we’ve gone on strike on a range of issues. Strikes mean you’ll lose your pay on a point of principle. But eventually all disputes get resolved.

However union membership is significantly lower than it used to be. That’s for a wide number of reasons. The economy has moved from a productive base with large number of workers in a factory to one of services with less employees with the emphasis on flexibility.  Long before the economic slump, workers viewed union membership differently. I recall listening to a radio vox pop about 15 years where young workers said they didn’t need to be a member and that you get all your rights from the government anyway.

Union membership is still strong in the state sector but in private industry? Well that may be another story. .  For young people the workplace is a fundamentally different place to what I entered over 35 years ago. The arrival of internships puts permanent workers under threat. Internships are unpaid work. When I graduated from college I believed I had a right to a paid job. Nowadays, you need a masters and an internship and then you might be lucky to get paid something decent by the age of 25. Workers now are cannon fodder to a different set of workplace relationship, relationships that works just one way only.

Add to that the reality that the aspirations to borrow to own a home is now harder to achieve than in my day against a backdrop of greater brand awareness among you people and rampant consumerism. Never has there been greater expectations within our young, yet less ability to meet those expectations in our society than ever before. As the bar for young people goes higher and higher more young people see themselves as failing. Is it any wonder that well being and mental health are being emphasised like never before in the new Junior Cycle?

So we have smaller workplaces, greater flexibility, more isolation and greater expectation and pressure. Unions have to address what is going on out there in the lives of young workers if they hope to remain relevant. Friday’s exercise was part of that change in direction on the part of ICTU. I welcome it, it was worthwhile, a first step for many young people and one that will in time lead to more.

That bit of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!

You’d almost forget it was happening. However running alongside our presidential election we have a referendum on the subject of blasphemy. Why in the name of God with Brexit on the horizon are we talking about blasphemy?

It goes back to 1937. When the constitution was enacted a provision was made to ban blasphemy. Blasphemy is the deliberate act of causing outrage by insulting God. In Saudi Arabia it is punishable by death, as are most other offences in Saudi Arabia. For over 70 years the provision was not backed up by legislation until Dermot Ahern as Minister for Justice thought with the economy about to tank, banning blasphemy legally for the first time in Ireland was the way to go. Ireland had the dubious record of being cited by some countries with shocking human rights records in their defence of their laws on blasphemy as a result. 

Before I go any further let me say I’ll vote to remove the reference to blasphemy from the constitution.  I say that as a churchgoer that any faith which feels it needs the legal protection of the state to its view of its God is built on quicksand. After 2,000 years of Christianity and 1500 years of Islam, why is there the need to protect a view of God or to enforce that true civil law? If a comedian or a writer can cause enough outrage that thousands of years of faith are undermined, then sooner or later that faith will wither anyway.  And I don’t believe any faith is about to disappear.  The original blasphemer was executed on Good Friday 2,000 years ago because of the outrage he caused to the High Priests and Pharisees at the time.

To be fair, the Christian churches were well and truly shattered by the time,years of parody by Monty Python and the Life of Brian.  What religious fundamentalists could have gone with blasphemy if the section in the constitutional provision is retained , well your guess is as good as mine. Blasphemy legislation is a deliberate come on for anyone seeking notoriety. Should the state by its laws facilitate someone bent on seeking publicity? I don’t think so.

but not because of  Dermot Ahearn arrived on the scene with this legislation. When a law is implemented, it’d be nice to know where it leads. Religious fundamentalism cannot be legislated for either.

I doubt if Dev ever considered that in the 21^st century his constitution might have provided the grounds for fundamentalists to seek protection in Irish law for someone who questions Islam on facebook which operates out of Ireland, perhaps in Arabic? Because that is what our current law can allow. Dev might likely have raised an eyebrow if he could visualise as happened in Indonesia that a muslim running for election who called on people of other faiths to vote for him was prosecuted under blasphemy law for that speech.

Blasphemy is a Pandora’s box. I do not want to see faiths from Kinnegad to Trinidad turn our judicial system into a debating chamber where competing arguments try to out outrage one another. Once it is opened who knows where it may lead. Best to use the ballot box to keep Pandora’s box shut

Dr Varadkar’s mogodon route to Brexit

Perhaps it escaped your notice but we are already even if the present Dail lasts a complete 5 year term half way through its lifespan. Not too many people at the outset gave this arrangement much hope of getting this far. My own view of the suggestion that FF would pull the rug from under FG was that in the event of another indecisive election outcome, Fianna Fail would have few interested parties in working with them for fear of another self seeking collapse of any arrangement.

However , could it be that we are beginning to see  this administration unravelling at the edges? The disdain in office for independents by the government as the granny grant shambles and blatant local electioneering of the independents is only surpassed by the shenanigans in Fine Gael as Minister Eoghan Murphy hangs on a junior ministers every work waiting to see if she has confidence in him. Dr Varadkar frequently threatened general elections at the very thought of a reversal for FG. Now that it is almost upon us, he is away from his desk in the UN, the last place you’d push the nuclear button!  How very convenient?

The medium term sees a lot of difficult issues before the year is out. Dr Varadkar’s unfortunate use of the term bulletproof to describe the back stop arrangement seems to be premature. This government has dined out on their support from the remaining EU member states in the last 12 months. Michel Barnier is our negotiator on Brexit, we’ve nothing to fear.

That suggestion is both lazy and naive. We all want to believe it’ll be all right on the night, but it won’t. We need to accept that the British will leave the EU and it is most likely it’ll be a shambles because there is no majority in Westminster for any deal and no unanimity in the British government for the deal that could be done. Dr Vardakar’s ill judged walk to the Salzburg EU conference step by step alongside Emanuel Macron suggested to the British that he stood fore square with Macron’s criticism of the Brexiteers as the liars they are. Fine words but there is a time and a place for everything, and when they are heading out the door and there’s business to be done, slapping the Brits in the face does little for Ireland’s cause.

So in that scenario, reminding us that we’ve Michel Barnier in our corner won’t cut the mustard when March 29^th comes around. We need our government to tell us what they will do in the context of Britain crashing out with no deal over Brexit.

This should not be a surprise to anyone that it has come this far. Last week I came across a piece I wrote over 3 years ago in the Co Wexford Reporter. It pointed out where Britain was going and how it could impact on trade, the union that is the UK and Wexford. It pointed out our exposure to BREXIT. It should have been a wake up call, all of this is very obvious.

A series of papers from the UK set out areas of trade and commerce that will be affected from March 29^th next. We need to be strategic in this country. Access via air needs mutual recognition of pilot’s licenses. 25% of the worlds aircraft are either financed or licensed or registered in Ireland. A bus driving from Dublin to Donegal may not be allowed across the border since its driver’s license or insurance may not be valid after Brexit.

We need to sit down with the British in the areas affected by Brexit for which our administration has competence and start to work out how to smooth over the cracks. Our local TD in Wexford just happens to be the minister responsible for Insurance, Michael D’arcy. He needs to tell us how trucks, buses and air planes will still roll across the sea and the border post Brexit.

Instead we have the distraction of a government looking towards the back half of the Dáil and the task of re-election. A Brexit shambles here may well shake the government out of its slumber, but will it be too late?

Time for Dr Varadkar to do some heavy lifting.

Things are getting curious and curiouser.

Lewis Carroll would be proud of Dr Leo Varadkar.  The best way to understand this country is to use a looking glass.  When this week Brendan Howlin stepped into the debate about when the new president would be inaugurated, I thought it strange.  We have a presidential commission, we can inaugurate a president on the day or as close as possible to November 11^th. That could have allowed our president to attend centenary events to mark the end of WW1 as acting President and come home to be inaugurated on November 12^th.

But November 12^th was already in the diary for Donald Trump. So we’ll get the president inaugurated in the wee small hours of November 11^th rushed off to Flanders Fields and home to tug at the forelock of one of the world’s great misogynists, bigots and liars.

Exactly a week ago, social media was wall to wall with FG supporters clapping Dr Varadkar on the back as to how well he’d done by putting the pope in his box over historic child abuse cases in Ireland. The Donald well be a much bigger fish to fry.

The real measure of Leo’s thoroughly modern Ireland will be if he has the political guts to tell Trump as he once promised what’s what in an international context. But nobody is holding their breathe on this one.

Because at the back of it we all know that Dr Varadkar is the luckiest of our Taoisigh ever. He has the EU negotiating for him, he has a divided opposition and thinks he is popular. How anyone could get to be Taoiseach without serving in an economic ministry is unusual. Sure what could possibly go wrong?

His problem might be that when luck runs out as it eventually must, it runs out like a light and is gone before you know it. There will be demonstrations and it will negatively impact on Varadkar’s popularity. And all the blarney and ballyhoo won’t hide it this time.

It never does, not even in wonderland.

Time for us to grow up when it comes to the bare truth

Vico Road, now there’s a blast from the past.  In the day there was a lot of controversy as a legal eagle with an address there tried his best to hold on to the plush property that he’d put up as collateral against his property portfolio. The banks no longer respect privilege or entitlement as they moved to recover their pound of flesh. That didn’t stop many populists who rushed to protest as the bailiffs arrived.

When the fuss all died down Vico Road in Killiney returned to being an aged bastion of all that is middle class about Ireland. Until of course earlier this year when it was proposed that a small section of beach should be reserved for naturists by the local council. The locals are by all accounts aghast at the prospects of the riff raff arriving down to a little cove to get their kit off and to enjoy the sun in our unpredictable climate.

It seems that they are concerned that peeping toms with high powered binoculars will disrupt the quiet of the leafy suburbs.  The reality however is that any peeping tom who fancies a cheap thrill can 24/7 go online to view enough flesh on adult websites.

So, little of this phases me anymore.  I smile when i read how Victorian and prurient values still exist in some people’s minds. For decades naturists areas on beaches have been accepted on the continent. People there consider it as normal. Peeping Tom’s don’t seem to have discouraged topless sunbathing there.  Indeed Irish sun worshippers leave their discretion at the departure lounge as they fly abroad to top up the all over tan on the Med.

If Irish people abroad can use clothing optional beaches, why not at home? Why not in Co Wexford? Ireland for its own conservative reasons down through the years has resisted ear marking areas along our coast as clothing optional.  As recently as 2 years ago our then Mayor vehemently opposed any suggestion that a section of Wexford’s coast should be designated clothing optional on the grounds that if he walked down Main St naked he’d expect to be arrested. To be fair to him, he is right. Most people would expect an arrest of anyone who strips off on Main St in any town anywhere.

But that was not what was proposed. Wexford has 220Km of mostly sandy and in many cases secluded coastline. Surely it is possible to find a small area secluded area to facilitate naturists?  I doubt if there are many naturists in the country, let alone the county. But perhaps it’s time for Wexford County Council to show a bit of leadership and consider areas that might be suitable for clothing optional sun worshippers and put it out to public consultation?

7 more years.

Séan Gallagher, there’s a name to conjure up surprises. He’s back and ready to pick up from where he left off, Soon county councils will hear the patter of tiny feet as he appeals to councillors to nominate him to run for the Arás. He won’t be on his own. Gerard Craughwell seems to have changed tack and rather than look for 20 independent members of the Oireachtas to nominate him, he’s going on the council route too in his bid.

And that leaves Sinn Fein who will by the week end set out who they will run as President Michael D Higgins nominates himself to run for a second term. Opinion polls this far out from an election are unpredictable.

 Election 18 will be a very different campaign to the last one.  7 years ago FF was in disarray and unwilling to openly nominate and so it was that Séan Gallagher almost made it to the Arás until fate intervened. Gallagher will have no problem getting the nomination from FF controlled councils are there are many more now than there were when he first ran. Where he may have problems is how he is perceived by the electorate. His campaign fell apart when he inadvertently used the word envelope as he defended his role as a Fianna Fail moneyman. People are often forgiving of a person’s personal failings but when it comes to clumsy use of language in a debate he may discover that his support is not as high as before.

Craughwell comes across as angry in the media. He called on the President to clarify his position, when he does, he claims it’s an establishment stitch up. Michael D Higgins has been called a lot in the past, but establishment is a new one on me. I wonder how many of President Higgins speeches Craughwell reads?  His speech in Wexford in 2011 on the anniversary of the execution of James Connolly when he unveiled the lock out gates was hardly an off the shelf 2 minute routine. Rather it was a critique of the established values which brought us to where we are today. Likewise his tribute to Fidel Castro when he died stood apart from the response of all other European heads of state. His embrace of dialectic and intellect is the polar opposite of what I’ve always understood the establishment to be.  But it suits Craughwell to portray Higgins as establishment rather than make his own case as to how his presidency could be different. I don’t know what Craughwell will stand for if he is elected.

Sinn Fein simply want to run because they have plenty of money and will seize the chance to run in any election where neither Fianna Fail (officially) nor Fine Gael will field a candidate.  SF tell us they want to have a conversation about women, travellers, minorities, marginalised. Where they get a candidate from each one of those backgrounds is their challenge. I note that after 34 years of Gerry Adams, SF didn’t have a conversation within its own party as to who the new President should be. The good news is that they think the rest of us should have a conversation and in time they will give us a candidate to facilitate this. Let’s be frank about it, it’s not about winning for SF, its all about having their name on a ballot paper and poster for 4 weeks during the campaign.

For what it’s worth, I believe the President should be either an experienced politician or someone who has legal experience. Why? Because the Presidency is 2 things; a president whose values reflect where society is when the President is chosen and also someone who may need to make legal decisions that impact on the Oireachtas or our courts. Simply being able to spot a gap in the market for an investment doesn’t give you that ability. 

That’s what the job should be. But in keeping with previous Presidential elections you can bet your bottom dollar that this one will be as dirty as ever. That leaves just one credible candidate for me. For Labour, Higgins winning another term added to the repeal of the 8th will mark a turning point. But nothing comes easy. I'll be buying a pair of shoes , there's a lot of waking ahead of me.