06.25.07
Seanad (2)
Got the ballot paper. Most exciting.
Also noted the ST story yesterday – lots of people on both the TCD and NUI panels are dead….
And John Waters does and doesn’t plug The Examiner’s Ronan Mullen for the NUI panel today
” received a communication last week from Ronan Mullen who, aside from being a fine columnist with another newspaper, is a candidate on the NUI panel in the Seanad elections, writes, John Waters
He was asking for my support. I wept copious tears, partly for being reminded once again, as I am on each occasion of a Seanad election, of my inferior status, and partly from the emotions generated by Ronan’s obvious misapprehension – gathered, I assumed, from the quality of my spelling and punctuation – that I had in fact been to “college”. When Ronan followed up his e-mail with a phone call, it emerged that he was fully aware of my democratic deficit (I did not go to university and therefore am a non-person when it comes to elections to the Seanad), but thought perhaps I might give him a mention in this column.
Regretfully, I had to decline. Though impressed by Ronan’s passion and commitment to promoting the dignity of the human person, his strong views on the importance of family and community, his call for global solidarity and opposition to human trafficking, I explained that I was opposed to oligarchy and could not make an exception. My position, I outlined, is that I am a believer in universal suffrage and looked forward to the introduction of full democracy into Ireland in my lifetime. It would therefore be inconsistent to recommend one elitist candidate over another. Ronan told me he shares my views and believes that both the system of election and the broader operation of the Seanad are in urgent need of reform. For the Seanad to be meaningful as a second house of parliament, he said, it would have to be “more democratically elected and more seriously capable of forcing a second look at legislation”.
The last time I heard such views expressed was five years ago, following the last Seanad election. The speaker was Mary O’Rourke, who had just been appointed leader of Fianna Fáil in the Seanad. We were debating on radio in the light, or heat, of an article I’d written arguing that, because Seanad elections trample on the most basic principles of democracy, the sheer uselessness of the Seanad might be deemed its sole redeeming quality. “Watch this space,” said O’Rourke, by which I understood her to mean that Ireland would be a full democracy by the time the next Seanad elections came around.”
Poor John.
A recent correspondent accused me of self-serving views on another topic, so I suppose these ones are too. I know the Senate is one way a load of codswallop, but in relation to the university Senators I do think it is a way of getting people into politics who might otherwise be sidelined. David Norris is a great example of someone who would have had no platform without the TCD Senate panel. And let’s face it, the original motive of making sure the Prods got a few seats by giving TCD representation still holds. Since Ivan Yates left, how many elected representatives are CofI?
Chris said,
June 25, 2007 at 12:57 pm
“Since Ivan Yates left, how many elected representatives are CofI?”
Perhaps more than you might think. At minimum, Brian Hayes, Seymour Crawford, Jan O’Sullivan, Trevor Sargent and Martin Mansergh are all protestant. People just don’t make as much of an issue of their religion nowadays.
Sarah said,
June 25, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Brian Hayes? I had no idea..indeed they don’t make an issue of it!
Dave said,
June 25, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Serious lack of atheist representation though. No Thugees either.
Sarah said,
June 25, 2007 at 4:49 pm
well, undeclared atheists….probably plenty of actual ones..
Dave said,
June 25, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Do you think there are undeclared Thugees too!!!
Always had my suspicions about Mary O’Rourke
The Crewser said,
June 25, 2007 at 11:20 pm
What has religion got to do with anything. It would take this site to raise the issue. Ivan Yates is a very sucessful bookmaker. Who cares what creed he his. But the fact is that a lot of very vulnerable young people are being lured into gambling by the likes of Ivan Yates. This is the important issue here. Paddy Power is an RC and is doing a similar thing. Both should be put on notice that they have a very serious responsibility to warn young people what they are getting into. I should know, I was lured into the gambling game and it took me 15 long years to extricate myself from it.
joseph said,
June 26, 2007 at 2:25 am
This country need a good fascist spell of governance to clean up the politicians. Execute B Flynn and her family and we have a good start.therafter when we have cleansed ourselves of the scum and incompetence within Irish political life we can bring back a democracy later down the road.
ANY TAKERS FOR KICK STARTING THE REVOLUTION?
Colman said,
June 26, 2007 at 10:07 am
For someone who whines about the oppression by the majority on his pet projects you’d think that Waters would have some basic understanding of the flaws in simple democracy.
Dave said,
June 26, 2007 at 10:15 am
“Execute B Flynn and her family and we have a good start.therafter when we have cleansed ourselves of the scum and incompetence within Irish political life we can bring back a democracy later down the road.”
Thugee senators would be most likely to take that approach. I’m not sure if tearing the heart from the ribcage of an opponent in the Seanad Chamber is constitutional though.
Dan Sullivan said,
June 26, 2007 at 11:51 am
I’m quite annoyed at John as I had emailed him in relation to his 2002 article and asked if he was thinking of revisiting it to have a read of my site and perhaps we could conserve.
Instead, he very disingenuously suggests he can’t mention Ronan Mullen then proceeds to mention him 5 times and tells us all about him.
Also, I have problems with the ST article too as it focuses on the dead on the register instead of living who aren’t. Leaving aside the UL, DCU, and so on graduates who aren’t on the register, the fact is that the numbers added to the register for NUI are running at about a thousand per year while nearly 4 times that number graduate from UCD alone each year. And I have a means to correct the NUI register and it wouldn’t cost the “modest 5,000″ that Experian quoted either. read the post below.
http://dansullivan.blogspot.com/2007/04/
nui-how-to-update-register-call-tax-man.html
The Crewser said,
June 26, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Joseph’s comments speak for themselves. This infantile mentality is all too prevalent these days. To see the scum he refers to he need go no further than the nearest mirror.
joseph said,
June 26, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Well actually crewser
I was joking with my comments in the sense of not by any means being literal [executing??? come on!!!!!!] however the sentiments or feeling I have towards B Flynn is very much on the money. That is my view of her and her ilk.She is a disgrace to all the decent politicians, and yes that includes many within FF too. She is the personification of what is wrong with Irish poltics.
The fact that she is even being considered for any kind of position within government is absurd and to say the least disappointing. FF deserve so much better than this. Oh and if you want to delude yourself that she has not done anything wrong as she seems to believe, then consider this.
At best she showed reckless abandon and profoundly poor judgment by pursuing A a libel case in the circumstances in which she was hardly likely to win, and B to compound matters further she appealed it to the supreme court where she even less chance of a good outcome.
Now do you really think that such a person would be a wise person to trust government positions with?
NOT BLOODY LIKELY
Shame on the people in mayo who elected this DEGENERATE excuse for a politician. .