Election Diary: Polling Day

Well it's been an awesome 14 months or so, but it had to come to an end sometime.

In six hours time, voters across Tallaght Central are going to the polls.

I am immensely proud of the campaign we have run. I have engaged dozens of young people in active politics, in what has been the most substantial youth-driven campaign in Ireland - in one of the largest LEA's. I have brought real Labour values and politics to thousands of residents in community campaigns and through our political messages. It is worthwhile and of itself to have put forward such a campaign, but its legacy will be stronger still with an electoral mandate tomorrow.

I am asking blog readers to do just 3 things.

1. Vote Dermot Looney #1 in Tallaght Central, and transfer to my Labour colleagues, then keep left against the government.

2. Please vote Proinsias de Rossa #1 for Europe and do likewise. If you are not living in Tallaght Central, please vote for your local Labour candidates to build the real alternative in Irish politics.

3. Choose the friends you have in Dublin 12, 6w and 24. Then text, email, call, tweet, or send messages on facebook or bebo to them asking them to vote Dermot Looney #1. Take those 5 minutes now to make the difference.

There were many events and moments on the canvass today which I would love to blog, but tiredness and the early start tomorrow mean they will have to wait. Hopefully, there may be some opportunities to post during the quiet times tomorrow. In the meantime keep your eye on www.irishelection.com - who tonight called our web campaign "ace" - for the latest news.

I'll leave you with this.

As a young child I was deeply touched and inspired by Nelson Mandela's long walk to freedom and the queues and queues of people in South Africa's first free election. Those votes were won by an incredible struggle against a racist apartheid regime that seemed untouchable. Our right to vote comes from equally noble and oft-bloody struggles, from the Suffragette movement and the campaign to extend the franchise to more than just men of property, to the independence movement in Ireland and the great democratic revolutions of trade unionism and the Land League. Building the future is most prominent in the politics I espouse, but remembering the past must provide the foundation. Be sure to vote - and use it well!

Election Diary: T- 4: The Underdog Bites Back

It's going to be tougher and tougher to blog in the last few days of this campaign, but so many of you have told me you are readers - honestly - that I do feel a compunction.

Today was most certainly a day that would give you energy. It was, perhaps, one of our best days of the campaign so far. There were more than 20 activists around at various stages - we're hoping to build that even further in the last 3 days of Campaign '09.

We started off this afternoon with a canvass in the Square Shopping Centre. There was a reasonable crowd considering the gorgeous weather, and the feeling was most definitely towards Labour and our ideas amongst the shoppers and staff we met.

We shared, for a time, the middle of the second floor with Christian evangelists, one of whom shouted "Vote for Jesus!" I thought I was being very clever indeed to call out asking for a second preference for Looney, only to read this evening a Miriam Lord colour piece in the Times with pretty much the same line being used. Great minds and all that.

I was, again, asked for an autograph, which sounds a lot more glamorous than it is when it's generally the under-10 demographic who are interested.

After ice cream we headed to Belgard and Kilnamanagh for some leafleting and a chat with a few local residents. Pat Rabbitte TD joined up with us in Kilnamanagh and seems to revel in the electioneering. We took on fluids - definitely not the traditional Bank Holiday ones - before heading back to base.

Katriona had ably (wo)manned the computer while we had been on the trail, and, surrounded by paper, ink cartridges and envelopes, she proclaimed success on some of the paperwork - as necessary, if not more so, than the exercise in the Square earlier.

We hit the canvass trail again this evening in Dublin 12 with, again, some first-time campaigners; how wonderful it is to be welcoming new members to our campaign even at this late stage. We received what one of our canvassers called a "phenomenal reception." He may have been a little over-zealous but certainly our message is being positively received - except for one nun who was fiercely angry at being disturbed - and recognition is very high.

Perhaps it would be even higher but it is sad that so many of our posters - perhaps a third of the total - have been ripped down by, in many circumstances, rival campaigns. There are some who think they can bully a campaign which is much younger, fresher and not as well-moneyed but we have fought back in the only way we know - putting a real alternative to the voters, and keeping our eye on the ball. That they feel the need to behave in this way is perhaps indicative of the threat they feel from our supposed underdog campaign. We'll see when voters hit the polls in a little over 78 hours time.

Election Diary: T- 23: Damien's Debate

Attended the AGM of the Cherryfield Residents' Association in St Damien's School tonight.

Also there were my election rivals Cllr Seán Crowe (SF) and Pat Dunne (PBPA) along with latecomers Cllr Colm Brophy (FG), Cllr Joe Neville (FF) and FF's new candidate Eamonn Walsh.

I spent most of my early teenage years hanging around Cherryfield, kicking ball and being scared by girls! And I had an all-too-brief involvement with Cherryfield Utd FC a couple of years ago as a player-coach; I was delighted to meet some of the Cherryfield side on Saturday night, although their spirits were low after a 92nd minute defeat in a cup final.

Tonight, I felt that I was warmly received by local residents - many of whom I had spoken to on recent canvasses. Many of the issues raised - graffiti, underage drinking and youth facilities - sparked a good political debate which essentially broke on right-left lines. Colm Brophy's lengthy contributions basically boiled down to a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" attitude to young graffiti-ists. He dismissed the views of the two left candidates on encouraging art and graphic design in these kids and teens and talked macho about the full rigours of the law, and the usual guff one would expect from Ireland's answer to the Tory Party.

On the campaign trail we've taken to calling the new (Fianna Fáil) Eamonn Walsh "Eamonn Welsh" to distinguish him from our own outgoing Councillor of the same name. However his name is pronounced, the new FF candidate seems to have riled up plenty of residents in his own estate of Cherryfield, and I sensed real tension in the air - particularly when he tried to interrupt me on the one occasion I spoke.

To be honest, the politicians spoke too much and the community too little. This was the first AGM of the Association - who do fantastic work in the area, particularly with young people - in 2 years, but it ended up as a political football. I made clear that I was there to listen as well as briefly putting my involvement and experiences in the area out, along with some proposed solutions to the problems raised. But the anger felt by local residents towards establishment politics - on local as well as national issues - should mean for an interesting result in Cherryfield come June 5th.

Dublin Bus Service Changes

In the past, I have spoken to a number of blog readers from across Dublin 6w, 12 and 24 about bus service changes.

The cutbacks in Dublin Bus are an assault on ordinary working people and environmentalist principles. I have campaigned with my Labour colleagues against their implementation but, sadly, today is the day when much of them come into effect.

You can see the new restricted timetables for local buses below;

77 - Grand Canal Dock/Ringsend to Jobstown
77a - Grand Canal Dock/Ringsend to Tallaght (The Square)
77x - Ellensborough to UCD Belfield via town
150 - Fleet Street to Rossmore
210 - Liffey Valley Centre to Tallaght (The Square)

A number of local routes have been withdrawn entirely - including the 15x, 50x, 202 and 206.

Service changes to more routes, including the 19a (Jamestown Road to Greenhills) service, will be made on May 10th.

For a full list, please see http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/News-Centre/Travel-News/Service-Changes-/

I am committed to working as a candidate and, hopefully, a Councillor to bring better bus services to our area. You can read more of my blog posts on transport here and here.

Canvassing in Perrystown

Canvassing in Perrystown
Originally uploaded by Dermot Looney

Some people don't believe we're the youngest local election campaign in Ireland.

True, we have some proud support from veteran political campaigners here in Greenhills, chief amongst them Cllr Eamonn Walsh.

But pics like these show the major success of our campaign to date - getting dozens of young people active and engaged in politics.



I'm pictured, top right, in Perrystown with Colm Lawless, Brian O'Connor and Ciarán Rose on the canvass last week. The picture was taken by another canvasser, Kirsten Gordon, who features with the three lads below.


Later that evening we had a visit from the DCU Labour Party who are undergoing a resurgence this year. They joined up with some of our regular team for some campaign work in Dublin 12. The picture (taken by Paul Mulville) looks heavenly, not just because it was Holy Week, but moreso because the only lights to illuminate us were the training floodlights used by the Robert Emmets team in the 8 Acres!
No matter what way the count goes on June 6th, engaging scores of young people in politics like this will be something to take pride in.

Extraordinary Response to McHugh's Campaign

Greenhills, be proud!

We have had an incredible response from people in Greenhills and the wider Dublin 12 area in South Dublin County to our petition on the derelict site of the old McHugh's Shopping Centre. We delivered just over 1,000 petitions door-to-door in Greenhills Estate, Greenpark, Limekiln and Temple Manor.

From those, over the last few days, we have had approximately:
175 signatures by standard post or delivered by hand;
150 online signatories at the PetitionOnline site;
40 people contacting us by email to sign the petition;
40 freepost envelopes from the last batch delivered.

When you consider the majority of people took the trouble either to buy a stamp and post a letter, or deliver it by hand to my door, or log on online and sign up or email our campaign, you can see the serious community response there has been to this stain on our community.

There, are, we believe, much more to come. We are confident that by the end of our campaign more than 500 local people will have signed the petition demanding action either by the developer, or, as we suspect, failing any action on his part, by the Council. I have, in all honesty, never met with such a positive reaction from local people to a political campaign - mostly because people knew about me from previous canvasses and leaflets, know my record and that of the Labour Party in the area, and knew we were genuine.

This campaign has hit the headlines in all local papers. The Southside People covered it on their front page - the first time our campaign has been covered in this way. We also had a substantial presence in the Tallaght Voice (see below) and the Tallaght Echo, and were also covered in at least one other local publication. For the first time in 5 years, it seemed, our efforts have brought this issue to the fore - making, quite literally, front page news.

Other parties standing for election in Greenhills have obviously been taken aback by the huge response to the campaign I have launched. Amongst them have been the Socialist Party, who organised, over the weekend, a public meeting on the issue. This was held with approximately 70-80 people in attendance in the Greenhills Community Centre tonight.

Various political figures attended and spoke - Cllrs Mick Murphy (SP), Colm Brophy (FG), Cáit Keane (PD - soon to be something else) and Pat Dunne - blogged about here before. Pat curiously announced his intention to run next year for the People Before Profit Alliance, a Socialist Workers' Party-dominated outfit which was vehemently opposed by the last similar alliance he was involved with, the Campaign for an Independent Left. A number of local residents and people who had worked at the centre spoke passionately about the loss of local services and the dereliction Greenhills is now faced with on a daily basis.

Sadly, the meeting, in my view, was not well-organised and poorly-chaired, although from my own experience of similar meetings both locally and nationally this is a common problem. It descended into farce at one stage with the Socialist Party chair and FG Councillor Brophy engaging in an unceremonious screaming match while baffled local residents - myself included - looked on.

The SP had no particular solutions or answers to the community's concerns, other than to hope really hard that the developers take on board our views and maybe, just maybe, they might tidy up the site - perhaps, bafflingly, by building a car park. Mick Murphy scoffed at our campaign for a Compulsory Purchase Order, claiming we were "chasing rainbows." Cllr Murphy, it should be noted, has previously called for a CPO on the site on more than one occasion, and has also called for a CPO on the site of the old petrol station at the end of the Greenhills Road in Tallaght Village.

Nor did other political figures seem to have any real targets or solutions. On the conservative side, Cllrs Brophy and Keane indicated that they wished only to pursue issues through contact with the developer - similar to Murphy - or on the Council committee.

The PBP candidate called for a meeting between the developer (McHugh), Louis Fitzgerald - the publican who owns the Traders Pub next door and who has expressed an interest in the site - and local political and community representatives. I would be happy to attend such a meeting but don't believe it is, in itself, an adequate community response.

Unlike Cllr Murphy and Candidate Dunne, I believe very firmly that there is both scope and possibility, with public action, for a CPO of the site, and for its appropriate development in the needs of the community. And having spoken to plenty of residents both at and after the meeting - many of whom came to us to sign the petition - I am convinced that this approach is best for Greenhills.

People often associate groups such as the SP and the PBP with 'hard left' positions, but in truth tonight's meeting showed a bankruptcy to their arguments that was nowhere near the left. There was plenty of talk of facing down developers and speculators but, faced with an existing and mass community campaign, rooted in Greenhills and its people, the best they could do was make a few suggestions - some of them random, others bizarre - in the hope of bringing pressure to bear on the developer involved.

Don't get me wrong. I prefer to work with others on the left and baulk at any sectarian abuse or critiques of other progressives. These are two fine candidates and will appear higher up my ballot than the variety of conservative candidates in Tallaght Central next June. But as a socialist who believes both in utilising both the parliamentary - in this case, on the local Council - and the extraparliamentary, and who believes in the maintenance and development of public space and the public sphere through local democracy, the attitudes of the other 'leftists' baffled me.

Fact is that the pressure has now been put on by the power of our campaign and that, given McHugh's continual failure to act over 5 1/2 years, this community response now needs to take aim at the Council. I believe the site to be derelict and to fall under the description of dereliction outlined in the 1990 Derelict Sites Act - and Council officials, who agreed with this analysis in 2006, will now be made realise the huge outpouring of community feeling to the site's dereliction and the need for its development.

Neither Cllr Murphy, who is based on the old Tallaght Area Committee, nor Candidate Dunne have access to the relevant Council meetings at the Terenure Rathfarnham Area Committee (TRAC). My Labour colleague, Cllr Eamonn Walsh, is continuing to push the issue and is raising it again at the next TRAC meeting on October 7th. Our experience to date has shown that committee work alone cannot achieve victory. But with a true community response, both in the future of the campaign and at the polls next June, progress is more than possible.

PS - If you haven't done so - don't forget to sign!

LABOUR GO ‘LOONEY LEFT’ IN DUBLIN 12 - Press Release

Labour Party Select Dermot Looney for Terenure-Rathfarnham Ward

The Labour Party have chosen one of their youngest candidates in Ireland as their new standard bearer in Dublin 12. Dermot Looney, a 25-year old campaigner from Greenhills, has been selected by Labour for next year’s local elections in the Terenure-Rathfarnham ward, which covers areas including Greenhills, Perrystown, Templeogue, Rathfarnham, Knocklyon and the W.O.R.K. area.

Greenhills-based Dermot Looney is an experienced activist with a huge range of experience covering local, national and international issues. From 2005-06 he led the local Labour Youth campaign to reinstate Joanne Delaney, a shop steward in the Ashleaf Centre Dunnes Stores who was sacked because of her trade union activity.

He has been active in local development issues, supporting a Compulsory Purchase Order for the derelict site of the former McHugh’s Shopping Centre on St James’ Road, and has been involved with a number of local sports clubs and community associations. Looney joined the Labour Party in 2003 and was previously the Chair of the UCD Pat Upton Branch, the National Communications Officer for Labour Youth.

Looney has also led campaigns for decent public healthcare and access to education and is an active member of campaigns as diverse as the anti-war movement, the Shell to Sea campaign, Burma and Palestinian solidarity and students’ rights. He is a primary schoolteacher who attended St Peter’s BNS and Greenhills College VEC before graduating with an honours degree in Social Science from UCD in 2005, where he specialised in social policies in the areas of education, housing, health, social welfare and employment.

He is currently completing a postgraduate diploma in primary education and is an award-winning sports journalist. A soccer fanatic, Looney is a Patron Member of St Patrick’s Athletic FC and was involved in the recent successful campaign to keep Pat’s at Richmond Park.

Looney’s selection is supported by Greenhills-based Councillor Eamonn Walsh (right), who will step down from the Council next year having been first elected in 1991. Looney has been selected with Pamela Kearns and Cllr Paddy Cosgrave to contest the 7-seat ward for Labour.

Speaking on his selection, Looney stated that he is “honoured to be asked to stand in next year’s election and to follow in the footsteps of Eamonn Walsh. I am standing to represent those who most need a strong voice on the Council – older residents, working people, our new communities and those who have been left behind or excluded from society,” he said.

“There is a unique community spirit and sense of belonging amongst the people of Greenhills, Perrystown and other areas of Dublin 12 and 6 West. This is the fundamental basis of what the Labour Party is about – promoting community through equality, freedom, democracy and solidarity. For me, our local community and the essence of the Labour Party go hand in hand,” Looney noted.

Congratulating Looney on his selection, Cllr Eamonn Walsh said that “Dermot Looney stands in a long line of local Labour and socialist activists dating back over many decades. His principled politics and track record of hard work will mean another dedicated representative for working people in this area.”

Looney has called on local people to get involved in his campaign and already launched an innovative online effort on social networking sites Bebo and Facebook and through his blog at http://thelooneyleft.blogspot.com

ENDS

(Pic - Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore with newly-selected candidates Pamela Kearns and Dermot Looney)