Very quick diary tonight as I'm pretty wrecked!
Great canvass in Greenhills tonight, despite the heavy rain. Pat O'Connell, a stalwart of more than 50 years in the Labour Party, turned up with only a suit but hard man though he is, I had to lend him my raincoat!
The amount of older people on the doors in our area who've voted FF all their lives but are now turning to Labour is astonishing.
Some of those I spoke to were part of the first group to settle in Greenhills in 1959 - literally a half century ago. And they're disappointed not only with a Government who have wasted a society, but with a local area becoming more and more derelict. The mix of the local and the national is very common and many people are articulating it in terms of political culture. I had a quick scan over Michael D Higgins' sociology texts on gombeenism recently and a lot of what people say to me regarding the failure of politics and politicians boils down to that analysis.
Managed to get up to West Tallaght to sort out a couple of posters incorrectly placed in Tallaght South where Labour's candidates Mayor Marie Corr and Cllr Eamonn Maloney are contesting. The boundary at Rossfield seemed to have confused some of my poster team, who in fairness have done amazing work in often dangerous and miserable conditions.
Some of the low hanging ones have been vandalised. One includes with an incorrectly-drawn swastika; I caught a youngfella with a marker nearby today and did my best teacher impression, which comes reasonably natural! On a more positive note, a big blue scrawl proclaiming "I Want You" can be seen on a poster in Greenpark; nice to be noticed I suppose!
Made it, too, to the Scouts Table Quiz in the Traders to say hello to a lot of the great stalwarts of community activism in our area. All capped off with the greatest toasted soda bread I've ever tasted - with real butter - and a cupán tae at the Kelly home on St Peter's Crescent. Not bad for a night's work :)
