Kevin Sharkey has withdrawn from the race to focus on his art and music career, both of which, in an incredible coincidence, will see new material released in the coming weeks.
Dublin City is the first council to declare they won't nominate anyone, which is a bad sign for the rest of the would-be candidates: https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0913/99...tial-election/
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Kevin Sharkey has withdrawn from the race to focus on his art and music career, both of which, in an incredible coincidence, will see new material released in the coming weeks.
I believe there will be a theme of corrupt county councillors. I presume it will not include evidence of said corruption. Gemma O'Doherty praising him and all.
Kerry Council votes today. It's hard to see if any more will actually nominate someone, or if they'd rather call a halt to the circus.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
WTF.... the SF Candidate is also dodgy on the Vaccine issue. https://twitter.com/newsworthy_ie/st...96301715513344
Were are they finding these people? And can we isolate them all on their own wee island.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
Peter Casey has two council nominations today. Four other councils voted against nominating a candidate. Think only 11 councils are left who have yet to make a decision. They have nine days.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Peter Casey now nominated. Three Dragon's Den alum running for President: this is a weird country some times.
Seven councils left, so I suppose that means only one more candidate can be nominated that way.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
At this stage Gemma O Doherty has annoyed me so much I kinda hope she gets a nomination so she can humilate herself even further.
Not really though. That said, three council nominations would be a laugh just to really wind her up.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
One candidate thrown out after telling the meeting of elected Councillors "Are you not sick of politicians?", another doubles down on baseless claim the state murdered a journalist: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...ting-1.3636237
South Dublin choose not to nominate anyone, perhaps being a touched peeved by someone who claims, as President, she would try and get the abortion referendum result overturned in the ECJ (the cries of "Democracy!" are a bit selective clearly). That leaves four councils I believe. Last night a meeting of 20 Oireachtas members led by Craughwell - who is taking credit for their being a contest for some reason - couldn't agree on the method of voting for a possible candidate. It's all a bit sad.
Regards O'Doherty and others behavior during this campaign, I'm struck by how easily they casually insult councillors for not voting for them, or suggest some manner of corruption, or even threaten to sue in one instance, then go straight onto the next council and do it again. There's no sense of just, you know, playing the game, like all of those who actually got nominated presumably did. It just makes you feel even more like the mind is more on book deals than actually running for office. You can shout "Corruption!" and "Collusion!" all you want, but when running for political office you have to actually engage in politics on occasion.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
O'Doherty gets her first nomination from Laois, after 13 of 17 present Councillors abstained, but was then roundly rejected by Cork County: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018...tion-councils/
Think 5PM on Wednesday is the deadline, so getting pretty tight. Galway and Kildare meet later today.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
6 names on the ballot. No more nominations possible
- Casey, Peter (Ind)
- Duffy, Gavin (Ind)
- Freeman, Joan (Ind)
- Gallagher, Seán (Ind)
- Higgins, Michael D (Ind)
- Ní Riada, Liadh (SF)
I'll be shocked if Higgins isn't re-elected on the 1st count.
GO'D still has until tomorrow for a nomination from 20 members of the Oireachtas. Assuming Ni Riada polls c.20%, I can't see the others adding up to 30%+1 vote, so seven more years of Ave Imperator looks likely on the first count alright. Aside from SF, there isn't even a viable protest vote for people to latch on to.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
She's been requesting that Sinn Fein give her their "excess" eight Oireachtas members. Like their a commodity to be given out, and have no opinions of their own. I don't think the whip extends that far.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
I don't see SF getting anything like 20%. MDH has a lot of appeal for SF voters and Martin McGuinness only managed 13% last time. Ní Riada is a much lower profile candidate up against a popular incumbent.
The whole Castro thing will have done Higgins no harm at all among the voters SF could potentially pick up
O'Doherty claimed in a late post last night she just needs Solidarity's 6 TD's to get over the line, so she must have 14. They aren't interested in Presidential elections though. Someone on Twitter pointed out that her repeated refrain of excess SF Oireachtas members being allocated to her is literally impossible, as they all already signed for Ni Riada and can't nominate anyone else. I'll fully admit I was ignorant of that, but am surprised someone running for President was. Barring an extremely unlikely volte face, six existing candidates it is. Sinn Fein already have posters going up in Dublin.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
I can't imagine that Sinn Fein are hoping for anything other than a way to get the party more air time.
Particularly at a time when none of the other main parties are fielding a candidate, so they'll be the only party with that air time.
While Higgins is nominally an Independent, you'd imagine Labour will try and bandwagon on his popularity as much as possible, and make hay out of his success. I pass Joe Costello's constituency office every day, and he's never taken down the 2011 poster.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
It's only to fair to point out that Ni Riada came out as pro-vaccination fairly definitively in interviews last week, very clearly trying to draw a line under that ill-thought out interview a few years ago. She never confirmed if she allowed her daughter to be given the vaccine though, though I suppose there is a question mark over if its appropriate to ask that.
I'm more interested, from a politics as horse-race perspective, in seeing what sticks to the President, if anything, over the next few weeks. You know parts of the media will be desperate to spice up what appears to be a walkover for him, and I doubt he will be soft-balled by the national broadcaster again, not with Sean Gallagher in attendance.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
First debate on the radio just now. Duffy came off like an empty vessel to me, the Gay Mitchell of this election. Freeman and Ni Riada were OK, weirdly thought Casey came off as the best of the four. Some nonsense talk of initiatives and not being able to speak Irish and Irish neutrality, but a mostly pleasant debate.
Regards Ni Riada and vaccines, her refusal to confirm her daughter took it would indicate to me she hasn't. Even if the MEP is concerned about her family's privacy, she only has to say "Yes, she has" once to make it go away, and she comes off very badly when trying to avoid answering.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
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