This morning Pat Kenny hosted a full two hour hustings with as many of the University Senate candidates as he could squeeze into a small room in Buswells Hotel. About 35 candidates attended so we were arranged into six sub-panels of between five and seven people and each group was given about 10-15 minutes. I ended up being placed on the 4th panel that was on just after 11AM with the rest of the "young" candidates.
Apart from being flattered by still being considered young, I ended up not being overly happy with the outcome of the panel. Pat decided to take me to task on being a member of the Labour party rather than focus on what I stand for or might bring to the Seanad in terms of expertise and knowledge. While I can see why this might be of interest, it seems odd that other candidates who are also declared members of parties just had the issue noted and then asked their opinions on issues.
I guess the easiest way out would have been for me to ignore Pat's line of questioning and just go into the zone about the platform on which I am standing. But that just isn't my style. If asked a question I'll give a straight answer even if it doesn't necessarily do me any favours. But that's something that I'm actually proud of - I have principles and I'm happy to stick by them rather than fudge around any issue.
Still it was worth doing if for no other reason than to meet up with many of the other candidates. Some of them I had never met before, others I haven't seen in several years. I guess we'll all meet up in the Exam Hall just after Easter to watch the votes being counted.
Later this evening I ended up back on the airwaves again, this time in my old haunt of Raidio na Life, filling in for Muiris on Scrios agus Ár. That was a far more satisfactory event where I got to blast some of my favourite tunes across the city interspersed with the odd cúpla focal. Its a lot easier to enjoy being on the radio when you're the person in charge of the agenda.
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