Farewell to a comrade

One of the things I like most about being involved in politics is the wide range of people you bump into at meetings, leafleting, canvassing and all those other political activities. Some of them you click with immediately, some take time and effort to get to know. In the latter category I would put Paul Duffy, who passed away last week at the age of 72.

On joining the Rathmines branch many years ago, Paul was one of the first people I got talking to. Little did I know what I was getting in to. After half an hour of discussing JFK and how he redefined the attitude of a generation I was almost fit to leave the venue screaming and never to return. But I realized that behind the slightly odd exterior was a very genuine person with a keen interest in politics.

So I came back the next month and we got talking about music. On discovering that I was involved in choral music he immediately divulged his love for the music and life of Count John McCormack. I was pretty sure I had heard my grandmother wax lyrical about McCormack but she was almost of an era with the man and so couldn't have avoided him. Paul on the other hand had chosen to get into this music and was a member of the McCormack society for many years.

Over the course of several election campaigns I spent many leafleting sessions covering the highways and byways of Dublin 6 with Paul. He seemed to have an unending energy for the granite steps up to the large houses on Kenilworth Square and Grosvenor Road. Once I got into the swing of canvassing, our trips together became rarer, as cold-calling people was not something that Paul particularly enjoyed doing. But even in the depths of the cold, wet winter nights of last year's general election, Paul could be found traipsing around Rathmines covering as many letterboxes as possible for Ruairi and Kevin.

I last met Paul at our branch meeting at the end of March. Despite arriving late (as usual) and upscuttling things as he found a seat and dug out his agenda and minutes, he was in good form. We discussed the Fiscal Compact and the mess the City Council had made of the privatization of the bins. And we discussed JFK and John McCormack as always. He sipped his glass of Guinness after the meeting ended and then headed off home. It was with some shock that I saw the email on Thursday that said he had passed away.

While you could never say that we were close or even friends, Paul was a reliable comrade over many years. I was glad to be able to attend his funeral this morning and pay my respects. The torch has been passed to a new generation of Labour activists in Rathmines, but Paul's contribution to our political efforts and his impact on our lives will not be quickly forgotten.

New team member

At the end of my last post I promised a more regular stream of consciousness/rubbish would appear on this blog now that the election and referendums were over. To that end I had started in to a series of posts on the constituency review process and some related modest proposals when reality got in the way again. Early on Friday morning, about three weeks ahead of schedule, Pass Level Politics acquired a new contributor called Ailbhe.

So for the next 18 to 30 years my life will be somewhat changed. It also means this blog may take on a slightly different slant as issues that I previously never cared much about become the most important things in the world. I'll still try to stick to the general current affairs/politics remit and will leave baby specific stuff to John over on To The Max which has the huge benefit of teaching me everything I need to know about 4 months in advance. But I may just lapse once in a while, but I'm going to claim that as author and parent's prerogative.

Video killed the radio star

Last night I had my first ever appearance on live TV, if you exclude being in the crowd at a Leinster rugby match. After a bit of emailing back and forth I was invited to appear on Tonight with Vincent Browne on TV3 along with other Seanad candidates Marc Coleman (DU) and Eoin O'Broin (NUI) along with Noirin Hegarty recently of the Sunday Tribune and now with the Independent Online.

As a very regular viewer and tweeter of #vinb I knew pretty much what to expect with the show but I had a bit of a wardrobe moment around 6ish when the producer texted me reminding me that the show is shot using chroma compositing. Unfortunately I had brought a blue-white striped shirt and my navy jacket to wear and TV3 use blue as their chroma colour rather than green-screening like I thought they did. I had plans in Rathmines over teatime and had not planned on heading home until after the show. However, not wanting to appear as a floating head, I dashed home to change to the suit and a non-blue shirt, and found myself in Ballymount ready to go at 10:30.

Once on air, we spent the opening 20 minutes or so discussing the Seanad and why the various candidates felt they should be elected. Of course Vincent and Noirin were having none of it. At one point I may have gotten stuck into Donie Cassidy a bit too much but that was only because I couldn't bring myself to say Ivor Callely's name on air. However, at this stage of the campaign most viewers will have heard most of the debate on the future of the Seanad and how it should be either reformed or abolished and so sensibly Vincent went to an early break.

During the break the front pages of the newspapers along with some of the opinion pages were brought in to the studio. I was immediately drawn to Fintan O'Toole's article on how the negative equity generation should take to the streets. Eoin and Noirin started discussing welfare cuts and the poverty trap and mention was made of protests. I tried to get involved bringing in O'Toole's article but the moment passed before there was a convenient pause.

During the second half, I got into a bit of a fight with Marc over academics and their 10 hour work week and then followed up with a bit about the liquidation of the University pension schemes at the bottom of the market by Brian Lenihan. This morning in work, those are the bits that got me the most praise - quelle surprise, academics stand together on these sorts of things! After a brief discussion of campaign financing Vincent suddenly called time and we were done.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how things went. Would have liked to have gotten in a bit more on science and technology but that probably wouldn't have made for great TV. Also, and for this I am grateful, I think Noirin and Vincent both went a bit easier on me than on Eoin and Marc. While I have done plenty of radio in the past, live TV is a whole other ball game. But having one show under my belt I'm pretty sure I could handle it being kicked up a notch or two if I end up in front of the camera again.

For those that want to watch it again have a look here.

Campaign Costs

In response to Daniel Sullivan's excellent suggestion to put all donations and expenditure in the public domain, here is the breakdown for my campaign.

Expenses

• Litir Um Thoghchan - 1500
  
• Envelopes, paper, printer toner - 70
  
• Stamps - 200
  
• Website hosting and domain - 80
  

Donations

• Time spent on website design and implementation (6 hours) - 300
  

Thats it. All expenses have been met from my own meagre savings. No cash donations have been sought or accepted.

Too legit to quit

Ah MC Hammer, where are you now? Apart from his awesome (?!) "U Can't Touch This" song with the video featuring super baggy pants, "Too legit to quit" is probably one of his most famous songs. Well as and from now that has become my catchphrase as I have been successfully nominated as one of 20 candidates for the 3 Seanad seats in the Dublin University constituency. Maybe I should take the song on as my campaign tune!

Anyhow, yesterday was a day of mixed emotions. Having signed up all my nominators and assentors I delivered the paperwork to the deputy returning officer at 10am in the Arts Building conference room. They took my email and phone number and said they'd be in contact. Then nothing happened. For ages. And ages. The deadline came and went without a sound from anyone. Luckily I had a couple of meetings to attend and so I wasn't left watching the clock.

At about 3 or so I saw some tweets indicating that 20 candidates had been nominated for the DU election. Surprisingly, or maybe not, various media outlets had been sent a release with the candidate names before the candidates themselves were informed. Luckily within the hour I received an official notification of my successful nomination.

Over the course of the evening I received various messages of support by phone, email, facebook and twitter, some from old friends, some from people I have never met before. It is heartening to feel that the efforts I am making are resonating with at least part of the electorate. I realize that I don't have the high profile of some of the other candidates, but I hope that people will take the time to read about the candidates and vote for candidates that share their viewpoint.

The campaign website is almost ready to go. I just need to find time to take a few photographs and then we'll be in business. Over the weekend I also need to finalize the Litir Um Thoghchan as it needs to be delivered to An Post before the end of next week. Whatever else happens, I'm not going to be kept idle for the foreseeable future.

Paperwork

On first glance the process of getting on the ballot paper for the Seanad election seems pretty trivial. All you need are a nominator, a seconder and then eight assentors all of whom are on the register of electors. Compared to the large number of signatures (or cash payment) required for the General Election or the even more restrictive rules for the Presidency, that seems fairly straight forward.

That is until you actually try to get all the names on a single sheet of paper in a short period of time. Of course the blame for that lies fairly squarely on my shoulders for not having organized this months ago but people do seem to have the most annoying habit of being out of town at exactly the wrong time. Secondly the 10 people all have to remember at which address they have registered their vote for the Seanad election. With most of my supporters being around my age people have moved house several times since registering. Unless they have registered their parents house or equivalent then their name may have been struck off the register without them even realizing.

So the plan is to head into the nomination office at 10am tomorrow when it opens. If I discover that someone is not on the register or has given the incorrect address then it gives me two hours to solve the problem. Hopefully it won't come to that though. Next up I have to have to traditional mug-shot taken for the ballot paper. Wonder if its more a hair up or a hair down type of a day ...

Moving up to Honours

The name of this blog is a throw back to my school days when students who weren't particularly good at the subject at hand took the pass level paper. In more politically correct times this has become the ordinary level paper but to people of my vintage it'll always be "doing pass". As someone who isn't very good at it, pass level politics seemed like a good name to have.

However, now I have decided to throw my hat in the ring for the DU Seanad election which is the equivalent of moving up to the honours class. At the moment the country is crying out for new faces, new names and new ideas. I want to be able to say that I did my part by putting myself in front of the TCD Alumni and asking for their vote. Readers of the blog will know my stance on most issues but I will be putting formal policy statements together over the next few days.

I am under no illusions that this is going to be an simple election. There will be many other fine candidates putting their names forward each with their own unique take on things. I feel that I have the ideas and drive to follow through and be a strong voice for a more rational, progressive Ireland. At the moment I am finalizing my paperwork and getting the campaign website together which should be ready for launching by the weekend. If anyone feels like lending a hand please let me know - the more the merrier as they say!

Political tweetup

After Brian Cowen's "hoarse" performance perhaps it was proven that politics and alcohol shouldn't mix. However, tonight we're going to have another go by having a tweetup* with a political slant in the Market Bar from about 8pm. Kudos to Johnny Fallon and Jennifer Kavanagh for sorting it out. I'll report back over the weekend on how "congested" we all get.

* For those who are wondering, a tweetup is where people who know each other from (The) Twitter meet up in real life and have awkward interactions as people you previously flamed unmercifully now turn out to be normal humans.

Short break

This blog is going on a short break for the next few weeks as I am off on my summer holidays. Firstly I've to go to a wedding in west Galway. Then  I am hitting  the Summer Breeze festival in Germany. Finally I'll be swinging up to Copenhagen to partake of the social activities at DrupalCon. Think I'll need a break to recover from it all. Doubt there'll be new post this side of September.

Matter of inches

Last weekend I came within inches and milliseconds of killing someone. I was driving to Sligo and somewhere around Boyle, on the last good stretch of road, I saw a person stopped with a bicycle in the hard shoulder at a junction. Having already passed several groups out cycling in the good weather along the route I guessed that he was part of another set of fundraisers or keep fit enthusiasts. He was well in to the side and the road was wide so I determined that we were no threat to each other.

However, as we got close to the junction (maybe 30m) a young teenager on a bicycle came flying out of a side road heading straight across the N4. I slammed on the brakes leaving a long skid mark along the main road. Luckily the ABS worked fine and I was able to turn towards the hard shoulder. As we passed each other, I was probably still travelling at 80km/h. At that speed, had he traveled 1m less across the road we would have collided and he would be dead. Luckily for him we missed and there was nothing coming the other direction so he lived to tell the tale. I pulled in and stopped, spent five minutes shaking with a huge adrenaline rush and then drove very cautiously for the remaining 20 minutes of the journey.

From my point of view it reinforced several rules of driving

• Always keep an eye on side roads - if I had just been watching the main carriageway he'd have been flung over my bonnet.
  
• Always keep a good distance between you and other vehicles - there was about 40m between me and the car behind so she had plenty of time to react to my immediate braking.
  
• Don't drive when tired or after drinking - with slower reaction times I would have spent today at a funeral in Co Roscommon and possibly be facing a court appearance
  
• Don't drive a banger - good brakes and functioning ABS were key to the kid's survival
  

This hasn't put me off driving or made me a more timid driver. I enjoy being on the open road too much. But it does make me wonder a little bit more about road design, especially where minor roads enter a major through route at right angles. Depending on access requirements, a slight curve in the minor road to align it with the major route would avoid direct access to the main carriageway and the runaway bicycle would have ended up either on an embankment or else belting up the hard shoulder. Of course, were cost not an issue, all inter-urban routes should only have grade separated junctions but that's in the realms of fantasy for the foreseeable future.