Election Online – The Opposition

Sinn Féin have devised their own website specially for this election, distinguishable from their newsroom site. This is accessible here, http://www.sinnfeingeneralelection.com/ , whence one can access individual candidate’s blogs.

The party lives up to its name in its blogging strategy, as none of the candidates have blogs as such. Instead, candidates make do with what’s termed a ‘blog’, but what is in reality a page on the elction site of SF.

Mary Lou McDonald is an iconic figure to Sinn Féin, worth her weight in PR gold . Previously the preserve of the working-classes, Mary Lou’s European election victory in 2004 showed that Sinn Féin can penetrate the middle classes. A Trinity, UL and DCU alumnus, she has the credentials to appeal to the petit bourgeois.

Mary is running in the Taoiseach’s constituency, a bold move if ever there was one, considering Eh Bertie’s popularity. However, Mary would want to get her act together on the blog front, as she has only posted a MP4 video and a brief biography.

Her meagre effort is available here http://www.sinnfeingeneralelection.com/en/election-blog/entry/129 .

To give her her due-and it kills me to do it- she has campaigned heartily in other ways, such as this video:

Pearse Doherty has the look of cat that’s licked the cream. Evidently he must feel he’s a great chance of taking one of the seats in Donegal South-West, for he doesn’t mention the area too much, except to reference emigration and a lack of broadband facilities.

A strong showing in the European elections of 2004 should set him up for a strong tilt at this seat, particularly as the bulk of his preferences in that election came from Donegal. Pearse’s page is here http://www.sinnfeingeneralelection.com/en/topic/4 .

Gerry Murray is running for the Shinners in Mayo. Mayo is hardly traditional SF territory, the electorate having leaned slightly towards Fine Gael for much of the history of the state. However, the Corrib gas fiasco could cost the larger parties dearly this time around, with Sinn Féin pole-vaulting the bandwagon in the Erris region.

Murray was previously a long-serving Fianna Fáil councillor, his defection being a propoganda scoop for SF. His page is available here http://www.sinnfeingeneralelection.com/en/topic/11 .

Dessie Ellis is a native of Finglas and is running in Dublin North- West. He spent quite some time in prisons in Britain and the United States due to his republican militancy.

Top of Ellis’s priorities for the forthcoming election is the extension of the Metro line to Finglas, which has been omitted under Transport 21. He also raises the issue of hospital treatment in the Finglas area, where he says many people go to the Mater or Beaumont hospitals, as the waiting lists are ‘ridiculous’.

Dessie sounds off here http://www.sinnfeingeneralelection.com/en/topic/6 .

Ann-Marie Carroll is leading the SF charge in Galway West. I would class any opposition TD that doesn’t prioritise the water issue there as an idiot, so she makes plenty of noise on that one.

There is quite an emphasis on lifestyle and leisure activities in the SF interview with Ann-Marie, that I didn’t see in any of the interviews with male candidates. This entailed a few questions on her favourite TV programmes, music, relaxation activities etc. Dare I suggest that SF are a teensy-weeny bit sexist in this case? Perish the thought.

To be fair to the Shinners, since the completion of this site major, nay historic events have unfolded in the Grim North. Therefore, I think it only right to show these groundbreraking events here…

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Tháinig ár lá, do chuile dhuine.

Our day came, for everybody.