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It’s showtime for the general election

Last update - Thursday, May 10, 2007, 00:00 By Metro Éireann

Most sane people were turning over in their beds last Sunday week when the election was called. The majority of normal people were thinking of Sunday newspapers, sausages and rashers and maybe even their weekly religious service. Not me, however. I am one of a minority of political anoraks who, on hearing the news of the election, leapt out of our beds, slipped on our best canvassing shoes and set off with haste to throw leaflets in doors and tie posters to anything resembling a vertical construction. 

Election time for some is like the World Cup for soccer fans. General elections are extra special – three-plus weeks of organised chaos with unsuspecting householders on the receiving end of promises, leaflets, stickers, balloons and canvass cards. Irish society has of course changed and with the advent of the mobile phone, unannounced door-knocking is more unusual than ever before. So when the door is opened and a smiling rosette-wearing candidate is on the other side, asking for something that sounds like an infantile expression for urination (number one, that is) it can be a little disconcerting.

I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed my campaign three years ago in the 2004 local elections, and actually sorely missed the experience after I was elected. The togetherness and companionship of the month of the campaign is something quite unique. It is rare to have all your friends and family around you daily for an entire month working towards a common goal and believing that they were doing something truly worthwhile.

However, some of the responses you get ‘on the doorsteps’ are hilarious. I was once told that Mary Robinson ‘brought the foreigners into Ireland’; that everyone in the Labour Party is a ‘Soviet abortionist’; that I’ll never get elected because I went on the radio and said that all inner-city children are stupid (a likely tale); and indeed, that Labour want Ireland to rejoin the United Kingdom!

Then of course you get the casual indifference, the polite apathy, the violent door-slamming and the craic. Last week I met a man who told me he was an ABBA fan – “An ABBA fan?” I asked confused.

“Yep, that’s right|,” he replied, grinning. “ABBA – Anyone But Bertie Ahern.” At that he burst into laugher, clapping me on the back and relieving me of the leaflet in my hand. On my way out his neighbour, an elderly ex-Workers Party man, told me that he was putting together an underground movement known as the ‘Shaggists’ who are going to seize power by sleeping their way to the top!
 
Elections are tough on the candidates as nerves get very fought, and you are required to be in the best of humour at all times. I remember waking every morning during the campaign with sore hands, aching feet and extremely heavy eyes. It was worth it in the end, but I have changed my attitude towards anyone who runs for election, whatever his or her point of view. If you are willing to put yourself through that level of personal punishment then you have my admiration and you deserve at the very least a polite response at the doorstep.

So, now we’re off and running, and as PJ Mara once famously said, “It’s showtime!”

Make sure you ask all the candidates tough questions, make sure you think nationally as well as locally and most important of all, make sure you vote. Best of luck to all – it’ll be a hell of a contest!
 
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school teacher in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and is currently Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Eireann



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