The political and the human-reflections on demotion of John

Tonight is a difficult one for John McGuinness TD, a political adversary in our constituency who has not been reappointed to a Junior Ministry by Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD. On a human level this is a difficult time for John, his wife Margaret and all the McGuinness family, including my council colleague and opponent in the forthcoming local elections, Andrew. It is never easy to lose a position which you feel you have secured on merit, and one in which you have worked hard and in which you feel you have done well.

It is also a frustrating time for the McGuinness half of the Fianna Fáil team in Kilkenny who thought that by succeeding in topping the poll in 2007, and in the process, helping to deliver three seats out of five that enough had been done to secure the first step on the ministerial ladder for a politician who is, without a shadow of a doubt, bright and articulate. Indeed the McGuinness lieutenant on the Borough Council, Cllr. Joe Reidy tonight said on local radio that the step to a senior ministry was one they thought would happen sooner rather than later. Those of us of all political persuasions hoped that a senior ministry would come to Kilkenny sooner rather than later, as it is now twenty seven years since we had that honour and all it brings with it.

On a political level however, I have had my differences with John McGuinness. I believe his attacks on public servants in last year's Sunday Independent interview were wrong and unfair, but as the 'pension levy' or public service tax as it should be called has proven, many in his own party agree, including the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach.

John believes in his right to speak out, but it is the ability to attack Government decisions which your party made and which you walked through the Dáil lobbies to vote for, which I and a huge number of the voters I am meeting on the doorstep find hardest to take.

When John announced on KCLR local radio on the morning of the latest budget that the Government 'had made a bags of the last budget', he failed to mention that he had voted for it and also robustly defended it in the local and national media.

John was defiant tonight on national television stating that he had 'not been elected to the Dáil to leave his brain outside the door'. With this we all agree, but we will continue to demand that he and every Fianna Fáil TD in Carlow/Kilkenny and in the country accept their responsibility for and are held accountable for things like axing the Christmas bonus for pensioners and social welfare recipients, increasing class sizes, hatcheting services in hospitals and health clinics, abandoning the Fair Deal for those in nursing homes etc. etc. etc. and of course standing over policies which have ended up with hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs.

If we didn't I'm sure John would be disappointed that we, like him, didn't use our brains and speak out to defend the weakest in our society who are being made pay for the sins of the free-market nonsense which his party has made such a boast of championing.

Cill Chainnigh Beo-Welcome to Kilkenny Alive

A very warm welcome to a new online newspaper, Kilkenny Alive which hit cyberspace today. Already thousands of people have clicked into this new service. Two very experienced journalists, former Kilkenny People editor, Seán Hurley, and former Kilkenny Voice editor, Jimmy Rhatigan are behind this vneture and I wish them well.

I missed their launch last week as I had slightly more romantic things to do on the 14th of February, but I have decided to support the venture by taking the main ad space on the home page. If you're coming to this site from the ad, you're very welcome. If you log on to the new e-zine facility on my main website, I'll keep you up to date on my campaign. Meanwhile happy reading of Kilkenny Alive. The more diverse our local media is, the better for all of us.

Is Féidir Linn

Sin na focail a d'úsáid ceannaire mo pháirtí, Eamon Gilmore ag deireadh a aitheasc i gCill Chainnigh an Satharn seo chaite. Las sé tine faoi bhaill an pháirtí agus más aon comhartha an méid atáim ag clos ó cháirde agus an pobal, faoin dtír ar fad chomh maith.

We've just finished the historic first ever national conference of the Labour Party in Kilkenny and whar a weekend it was. For me, the most memorable conference speech was that of our last hugely successful leader Dick Spring at the famour 'Bread and Roses' caonference in Tralee in 1989. That was pure theatre with its opera and poetry and its sheer novelty. Saturday's sppech was all about content however, right from the start. The first sentence was 'I want to talk to you about solutions', and that was what he did. You can watch the speech below or read it here.

For my own part, I got to speak in the live RTÉ television debate on Saturday morning and you can see the speech here from the party's very forward looking presence on UStream. I also made the main RTÉ news for my comments regarding Fine Gael's attacks on the public service, and was also delighted to make it onto Saturday View, my favourite RTÉ radio programme, and had the privilege of being interviewed by John Bowman. The soundbite was small for all of us but we were there regardless. The coverage continued today as my comments were covered in two pieces in the Irish Times, one on FG and one on class sizes. and the Irish Daily Mail. More importantly of course on a local level I got to do a good piece with Tom Dowling on the afternoon news show on KCLR FM, our local radio station.

Two highlights of the weekend were the long service awards to Carlow/Kilkenny party members. Two of my favourite Labour women got recognition they deserved. Sadie Kelly was my predecessor on the party's National Executive and played a major part in bringing this conference to Kilkenny, work which I was delighted to continue, while the ever youthful Peggy Kerwick was unfortunately absent but her award was collected by my neighbour and great community activist, Seán. The others were Graiguenamanagh man John Bolger, Borris man Willie Hayes, and the unbelieveably fresh looking Paddy Dowd of Coon in North Kilkenny a 93 year old lifelong activist. All got their awards from one of my heroes, party President Michael D. Higgins TD.

He had previously presented the Jim Larkin justice award to Conor MacLiam, husband of the late Susie Long who inspired us so much in her life and her passing. Conor reminded us that Susie was a great socialist and a huge admirer of Larkin, and of course challenged us to keep alive the issues which tragically led to her death.

Support the Education Cuts Petition

Well done to Maria Parodi, new Labour Party local election candidate in Dublin for starting a comrehensive petition to the Minister for Education Batt O' Thief (sorry O' Keeffe!!) regarding the atrocious education cuts annouced in the budget and unfolding every day.
I'll be proposing the Carlow/Kilkenny motion condemning these cuts at our party conference being held for the first time in Kilkenny this weekend and this debate will be carried live on RTÉ One TV on Saturday morning from 11.00 am to 1.00 pm.
Please sign the petition here
Please also support the National demonstration against the cuts on Sat. 6th. December at 12.00 noon from Parnell Square, Dublin. Let's increase on the 25,000 parents, children and teachers who sent such a strong signal to the Government in Cork last Saturday.

The lads on tour-the evidence

Here's the evidence that the Kilkenny Labour lads were on tour last night. Gary Lynch and Declan O' Hanrahan are the best campaign workers you could wish to have and here they are campaigning against this miserable Government. We also attended the debate in Dáil Éireann. The only thing I'd change in the future is making sure we leave in time to get to Jo'burger, the best burger joint in the capital.

Budget Fun and Games

It's just like the good old Frank Hall days- the Minister for ruin comes in and tells us that they're all taking a 10% pay cut. I wouldn't mind taking a drop of 10% if I was on a quarter of a milliion a year. Now we're getting it though 2.5% increase in education and then a rise of €7 in pension payment. A fuel allowance incerase to a miserable €20 per week and for an extra 2 weeks-so much for tackling fuel poverty.

An end to the over 70's automatic medical card and cuts in entitlements to childrens allowance. On third level fees we'll wait for Batty Batt's report before they reintroduce fees!! Yet another focussed review of public service staffing.

A reduction in the number opf army barracks- I hope Kilkenny is not one. An end to decentralisation for Kilkenny I'd guess- a review in 2011! Three years away. So much for Charlie McCreevy's balloney in the chamber a few years ago.

Voluntary redundancy in the HSE- I'll bet it won't affect Brendan Drumm's cronies in senior management who got huge bonuses this year for doing very little.

Now for the green bit- a scheme to make houses warmer-to be welcomed for sure but how far will €20 m go? A carbon budget whatever that is form Gormless tomorrow. Won't hold our breath that that will have much exciting in it.

Now the real meat-taxes!

1% on all of us up to €100 k and 2% beyond that. An increase in VAT to 211/2%- now that will hit all lower income people disproportionately.

Air travel tax of a tenner-another five hours of free press coverage for Michael O' Leary's rantings coming up. 50 cent extra on the fags.

Mortgage interest relief up 5% for first time buyers-welcome for them and no harm to FF's building buddies either. No talk of measures to save young couples from the banks though.

Stamp duty on commercial property down from 9% to 6%-WHY??? Tax incentive to promote cycling to work and punishment for provision of car-park places. Bet that won't impact on the Leinster House car-park.

Local Government-€200 charge on all holiday houses and second houses for local Govt. About time! Is this the reintroducation of property tax or rates by stealth?

Agus ag deireadh-"Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine!". What a joke-not a mention of making the muti-millionaire off-shore billionaires behave like patriots and pay their tax to their own country. How ironic that Lenihan calls for a call to patriotic duty and abuses the memory of the Blasket Islanders in the process.

Watching Alan Kelly reacting for Labour. Nothing on Broadband- spot on!

50 cent on bottle of wine. Not sure about that one as all my friends will know!!

Increase in tax bands pathetic. €250 million for school buildings-will it be transparent or politically controlled and leaked on a drip-feed as Hanifin did?

Reaction from Vincent de Paul says it all-3% increase in pensions- increase in VAT as I said earlier on will hit the poorest hardest.

The real Michael Noonan is back-how did the FG handlers manage to destroy him when he became leader? Spot on on nursing home costs of additional €12,000 for those in nursing homes and real impact of removal of medical card over 70.

Labour's Reaction

Here's Eamon Gilmore's reaction-captures much of my own anger:

This is a budget that mercilessly targeted middle-income families, protected the interests of the super-wealthy and failed to take any significant steps to protect the poor and the vulnerable in the face of the worst recession facing this country for decades. Despite the fact that we are seeing the most serious increase in the numbers out of work ever recorded, there was not a single initiative in the budget to reverse the trend of job losses or to put people back into work or into education or training. The people who will suffer most as a result of this budget are typically the nurse, the teacher, the office manager, the skilled tradesman, the small builder: people struggling to make ends meet, to pay the mortgage each month, to cover the cost of childcare or sending a child to university, to meet the cost of drugs for a sick child. These families will pay more in tax and will have to pay more for a range of public services – and the full extent of these additional charges will only become clear over the next few days. The Social Welfare package is only about half that announced in last year’s budget and it is clear that those at the bottom will fall even further behind. While inflicting the maximum possible pain on middle income, working families, Mr. Lenihan has done little or nothing to ensure that the super wealthy, who have made vast fortunes over the past decade, the make the contribution they should to economic recover.

Back to the action
Richard Bruton is right-not a thing for reducing class sizes.

Here comes Joan Burton-how right she is-'Nightmare on Merrion Street'. Right too that it's an old-fashioned Haughey budget.

Nothing to get people back to work or retraining. Into the bonfire goes Social Justice-nothing for childcare for young parents-cutting ot back slowly but surely. No pre-school education left behind after the boom.

Minister won't feel the pain of ordinary working people-too right. Impact of medical card cuts-hospital charge up from €66 to €100.

€2 increase for fuel-the price of a box of firelighters! €16 for a bag of coal and only €20 in total. Well done Joan.

"The fundamentals of our economy are strong!".

She remembers it right and we are fed up of this Government taking no responsibility for the ,ess we are in. We know that it can't be good enough to say that the International crisis is at fault for the mess while Fianna Fáil were totally reponsible for the boom.

Reflections on my own campaign

It's time for us all to look at the way the Lisbon campaign panned out. First off the margin of the local vote was a small victory. To be one of only ten constituencies to vote Yes, if only by a margin of four votes at least gave us the satisfaction of quietening the Shinners at the count centre.
For my own part I was happy to be complimented on local radio as having run the best campaign in Kilkenny. I had a highly visible poster campaign in the city area, and dropped over 4,000 leaflets into most houses in the city. I managed to canvass almost 1,000 houses while doing a number of public street events also.
I was happiest with the photo opportunity I organised where Labour, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Green party politicians came together to support the treaty.
To the negatives, the complaints from some about my poster design were valid. This was a National design, and the prominence of the Yes message was too small. The posters also failed to hit the simple message strategy that much of the No campaign did.
On reflection, we did spend far too much time on the defensive and teams which defend too much generally lose the game.
The failure to restate the gains we have made from EU membership, and the bravery to seek those benefits for other newer members was a mistake. The Yes campaign lacked a vision, a positive message to enthuse people. Many of those who we eventually persuaded to vote Yes did so reluctantly.
Finally, the campaign never showed serious intent. Brian Cowen's exhortations to his party to fight for the treaty like it was a General election just never happened. In our own party too, it was difficult to get members active. Maybe we all presumed thatthe voters wouldn't ' do Nice' on us and themselves again.we should never take them for granted again.

Time for a decent bus service to Cork-Join the campaign

Since my wife began working in Cork last year and a number of students have contacted me, I have been looking at the public bus service to Cork from Kilkenny and vice versa. Putting it mildly, the service is poor. As a supporter of public transport, I believe it is crazy for our national bus company to effectively make it more difficult to travel by public transport than by car.

Because of our mad radial train service where all lines radiate from Dublin and there are no connections in between, getting from Kilkenny to anywhere except Waterford and Dublin and points in between is not an option. To get to Cork or Kerry for instance you have to find your way to Thurles to the nearest train connection.

Back to the bus service which is the only option to Cork, the timetable is extraordinary. From Monday to Saturday, the fastest bus journey is 2 hours and 50 minutes, and that's only once a day in the morning. It arrives in Cork at 9.50 am, too late for work or for any half-conscienscious students. The other three journeys take between 3 hours and 5 minutes and an extraordinary 3 hours and 50 minutes.

At the weekend it's worse with the fastest journey taking 3 hours and 5 minutes, this the Sunday evening service most likely to be used by students. The reason for much of this is the decision to route the journey through rural South Tipperary. Putting it bluntly, the service is used to provide the people of Clogheen and Ballyporeen with a service. As a long-time rural activist I always support the provision of rural services, but surely it makes no sense to divert what should be an inter-city bus route through a rural hinterland, thus losing business in the process.

The campaign to change this begins now. I have just launched an online petition campaign to support a motion I have placed before Kilkenny Borough Council, calling on Bus Éireann to substantially improve the service. Please sign the petition here, and encourage your friends to do so also. If you're a UCC student, or a CIT student or you travel to work in Cork or from Cork to Kilkenny, please support the campaign. You could take up a petition in your college or workplace. I will begin campaigning amongst existing bus users this weekend. Please spread the word today

Na Maoinigh Ann Aris-On March Munster

Ar aghaidh le fathaigh na Mumhan. Cad é mar bhua nGloucester tráthnóna?Ach go háirithe b'é fear Chill Chainnigh agus iar-scoláire Ghaelscoil Osrai, Ian 'Skinny' Dowling ó Bhóthar Chaisleáin an Chumair a chuir seasmhacht le imirt an fhoireann leis an úd iontach a bhfuair sé sa chéad leath.

Onwards then to the semi-final against Ospreys or Saracens. Any tickets going a begging? Enjoy the night in Gloucester ye lucky Red Army.

Meeting the Milk Cart

Here is the ultimate childish comedy fan's pic. On the road to Callan on Thursday, Fionn, Caoilfhionn and I came across the wonderful milk-cart from Fr. Ted-remember the manic scene with Fr. Dougal driving the cart around like a demented lunatic á la the movie Speed.

The cart is being pushed around Ireland to raise funds for Downs Syndrome Ireland and to mark the 10th anniversary of Dermot Morgan's death, and is getting a fantastic reaction everywhere.

Here's the famous clip that you shoud remember-what magic it was, and do support the lads and lassies organised and sponsored by Paddy Power bookmakers when they come to a place near you.

On we roll!

Obama gets Alabama according to Fox, although they hedged their bets for a while CNN much slower with these calls. According to polls Clinton was 3 points up here during week. Looks like Niall O' Dowd will struggle fot the 17 wins he was looking for tonight. The shake-out of the delegates will be more important. Hillary can win Massachusetts but Obama can still get nearly half the delegates there.

Kansas called for Obama too now on CNN. They're saying no major lead for either tonight. CNN now calling both Mass and Jersey for Clinton. Final delegates will be vital here.

North Dakota to Obama now also. Small states coming his way, but needs a biggie. Connecticut would be nice-nose just in front there.

Yippee-Connecticut just called for Obama by Fox. Very close but polls had her ahead by 3 but that's gone. CNN now calling Connecticut(although close) and Kansas for Obama- seven states out of the 24 tonight in his box already.

Another big one in now. Obama wins Minnesota-88 delegates to play for there.

Arizona and California called for Clinton. As Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin would say-'Sin a' bhfuil de chúrsai spoirt'. Here's to seeing the number of delegates stay close, and for Missouri to come in next hour. Meanwhile it looks like Obama has won 14 out of 24 states tonight. He needed one of NY, NJ or Cal, but hopefully there's still a lot to fight for-"Yes we can-maybe!!"

Here it comes-9 states come in

Now let's see the real action, 9 states to come in and about to be called on the basis of the polls-let's see Jersey and Massachusetts. CNN going Republicans first- He gets Illinois, but loses Oklahoma, both as expected. They're not calling anything else yet. Come on, give us the big ones!!

Georgia called now-again no surprises. Polls giving Obama 50-34% beforehand.

Here comes Arkansas-Clinton takes it-no surprise again, and Huckabee, former governer here takes it. She takes Tennessee also as predicted. CNN saying she's holding in Clinton country.

Fox calling Massachusetts for Clinton but CNN not doing so yet. They're giving her NY though-huge one that she would have been shocked to lose.

Obama wins Delaware-only 23 votes in total but still! Fox now calling New Jersey for Cinton-looks like it may be going her way!!! She's holding in the biggies so far!

Tickets in the paw

Got em-thanks be to God and Willie-Meighan that is! At 9.03 yesterday, got the magical 4 tickets for Clapton at the Live at the Marquee festival on June 20th. To the wiseguy in Cork that suggested he should be playing in old folks homes I say come along and see this sixty-something do things with a strat that the young lads can only dream about. Roll on June and a chance to see the king of the blues up close and personal.

Change in the air-Obama does it in Iowa

This politics thing is insane. Here I am, back from the Kingdom, having had a politics free fortnight and a great time with Mar and the kids and my parents. Yet here I am at almost three in the morning, watching the intrigue of politics three thousand miles away. From the day three years ago when I picked up Barack Obama's book in an airport in San Francicso, I've been hugely excited by this extraordinary young African American Democrat. I have believed that he can give Hilary Clinton a real run for her money in the Democratic primaries.

In the last ten minutes it's becoming a reality. Both CNN and our beloved Fox News have just called the state for Obama, with an astonishing 7% lead over John Edwards and Clinton. He now has 37%, to 30% each for the others. The turnout is huge, and a real indication of hope is that the number of young people turing out is the best in years.

On RTE's Primetime programme tonight, Samantha Power, that magical Irish woman who packed St. Canice's Cathedral in August called it like this. The infectious enthisiasm she had then and now may just prove right. For those of us enthusiastic about how new ideas and a lack of sticking with the old ways of doing things in politics, a guy who has only been a Senator for three years but who's now threateningfto become the US' first ever black President breathes life into politics. Roll on New Hampshire!

Disgraceful Double dealing and insulting decent people

I promised last night that I would come here today and give the reasons I was angry then. I hoped that my fury would have decreased by now but instead it's got ten times worse.

The front page of our local paper the Kilkenny People carries the story today, and the national papers will follow suit tomorrow with the fact that kilkenny Borough Council, my council and that of the 20,000 people of the city of Kilkenny, have failed to award the Freedom of Kilkenny to Séamus Pattison, the longest-serving parliamentarian in Europe, who retired in June of this year after forty six years continuous membership of Dáil Éireann. He also served for decades on our council and Kilkenny County Council, serving as mayor of Kilkenny and Chairperson of Kilkenny County Council.

His record as a public representative is utterly without blemish, and Séamus was famous for the service he gave to the ordinary people of this city, regardless of political persuasion, colour, class or creed. Even the most begrudging of opponents would admit this. How then could this most noble of honours this city can convey be refused him?

Put simply, the decision to bestow the freedom of the city is taken by the unanaimous vote of all twelve members of the council in secret ballot, after the Mayor of the day has been assured that such a vote will be unanimous. So it was this Monday that our Mayor was assured privately by all members that this would be the case. Between then and the vote a matter of hours later, a number of councillors broke their word!

The upshot is the public humiliation of the Mayor, my colleague Cllr. Joe Cody who proposed the motion in the first place, and of couse Séamus himself. I may be accused of bias because all of the above are my party colleagues, but I find it hard to work out which of these fine people deserves the humiliation least.

What it does mean however is the cheapening of the political process, and all for what? To score a cheap political point while hiding behind the denial and the cover of the secrecy of the ballot? One thing is for sure, those of us who believe in honesty and decency in how we deal with people will not take this one lying down. We will fight to have this process changed so that decent people like these can never again be humitiated in this fashion.

For me, my conscience is clear. My 'Tá' or Yes vote was seen by another councillor, and I would not have dreamed of doing anything else, either for Séamus, of for somebody in any other party whose service to Kilkenny came even close to his. Let my colleagues consciences be equally clear, or those responsible at least have the decency to be ashamed!!

An Baile is fearr-We are the greatest

Kilkenny is the greatest town in Britain and Ireland and it's official. On Friday last the 19th. of November, the Academy of Urbanism, an international organisation of planners, architects and academics involved in planning cities and towns gave us the huge honour of naming us as the Great town of these four countries. In the process we beat St. Andrew's of Scotland, and Winchester of England to claim the title for the first time that an Irish town has claimed this prestigious title. For those that are jumping up and down at the thought of us being called a mere 'town', Winchester were also happy to be nominated for this award despite also being a city, and indeed a former capital city of England. We accepted the award in London's Dorchester Hotel, the one you know from the Bond movies, and celebrated long into the night. Hopefully the peole of Kilkenny will appreciate the importance of this award, and we will celebrate in style in the coming weeks.

We put a huge amount of work into wining this award, and the judges who visited us in August again commented on Friday about the huge effort put in by us as Councillors and our officials to show Kilkenny in its best light. For now though, we're just as proud as punch, and know that Kilkenny and its great people more than deserve this prize.

Droch-Lá-Susie leaves us

This is a sad way to return to blogging after another break, but yesterday we got the news that Ireland's bravest woman, Susie Long had lost her battle with bowel cancer. I knew Susie from about town over the past couple of years, and first met her at a gig in Ó Riada's pub about three years ago. Susie was a great music fan, and my abiding memory of her will be the night I shared my colleague Malcolm Noonan's back seat with Suzie on the way back from Bruce Springsteen's magical Seeger Sessions concert in the Point Depot last Novemember. Like the rest of us, Susie indulged in a bag of chips in Inchicore, although she knew that with her illness it would cause her pain the next day. It was the fact that she, like my 15 year old son Fionn, Malcolm, Kairon and myself, were on the ultimate musical high after a truly uplifting gig that will stand in the memory.

Of course it was as Rosie on the Joe Duffy show on RTÉ Radio One that Susie became a national person of influence. Her honest and painful retelling of the story of her delayed treatment as a result of her lack of private health insurance struck a note with everybody who heard it or read the transcript afterwards. Suzie was not looking for personal sympathy, but through her anger at what she knew was her imminent passing, was fighting to ensure that an unfair and appalling health system would not claim others. If you haven't heard the original clip, here is the transcript, or here is the podcast.

In the months since Susie has borne her illness with great dignity, and was delighted to be in attendance in St.Luke's hospital to see the plans for the long-awaited day services unit which will be dedicated to her memory, and indeed her fighting spirit.

Susie was a life-long political fighter and gave so much to her adopted Kilkenny. I was privileged to have known her, although not as deeply as I would have liked. To Conor Macliam, her husband, and to Fergus and Aine, her beloved kids, my sympathies. As she annouced to the nation in an icredible interview with the Sunday Tribune recently. Even more enlightening was the short interview she gave to Miriam O' Callaghan on Primetime, which you can access here.Susie's body will be cremated today Monday, and a memorial service will be held in her memory on Friday.I believe we must honour Susie's memory in a concrete way. One is to continue the fight for decent cancer services for all. Another is to work for a proper hospice in Kilkenny. For now we just miss you Susie, and hope that your battle inspires us all to keep on fighting.

A good choice made and time to chose the best Deputy Leader-Why I'm backing Jan

Today is a historic day for the Labour Party as we select our tenth leader. At what I consider is a relatively young age, I'm now looking forward to meeting my fourth party leader in person when he attends the members hustings for the South East in Kilkenny on Tuesday week, the 18th. of September. For what it's worth I believe that Pat Rabbitte stepped down too early, a view I have related directly to him. This is the second such occasion, with Ruairi Quinn having left too early also in my view. That said, both men had very good reasons for doing so, and it's now up to us to get on with the task of rebuilding our party back to where we were in 1992, and to our ultimate aim which is to become the main opposition party in Ireland. In that context I think we have chosen the best leader available to us, and I now believe we should chose Jan O' Sullivan as the best positioned person to carry out the Deputy Leader's job.

I warmly welcome the election of Deputy Eamon Gilmore as the tenth leader of the Labour Party. I have been a long-time friend of Eamon, who like myself, is a former national student leader. His work as a Junior Minister in the last Government in which we were involved was hugely admired, but it has been as our spokesperson on local Government and the Environment that he has made a huge impact, articulating a vision for the development of local Government and arguing for core Labour values like the necessity for building badly needed social housing for the 100,000 plus people in need of a roof over their heads.

Eamon’s ambition for the party has already been clearly outlined, and I welcome his commitment to win at least thirty seats in the next General election. I believe that regaining a Labour seat in Carlow/Kilkenny must be a key target in this strategy, and I intend to work strongly with our new leader to ensure this happens.

My decision to support Jan O’ Sullivan, and to call on party members in the constituency to support her is based on a strong belief that we need to have a balanced representation in the party leadership. It is crucial that the party continues to be seen as one for all the people of Ireland, urban and rural.

Jan comes from the proud Kemmy tradition of Limerick socialism, and has been an ardent defender of the values of equality, fairness and opportunity for all which summed Kemmy up. She has been a superb party spokesperson on education, my own professional field, and has formulated a forward-looking position on education, committing Labour to a substantial investment in education at all levels, particularly in reducing class sizes in our primary schools, a position the Government has singularly failed to introduce.

While I have great regard for Joan Burton TD, who has been a superb spokesperson on finance, and a hard-working TD, I believe Jan has the necessary conviction and commitment to be the best available support to Eamon as our new leader.

Now it's up to you-Get out and Make the change

Like most political activists in the country I'm wrecked. The demands of holding down a day job, rushing to the canvass most evenings from school and doing the other bits and pieces that being an election agent and part-time campaign press officer bring has taken its toll. There are some benefits however. Ths suit jacket that was embarrassingly tight two months ago fits today, and reasonably well. There's also the suntanned face but not much else of the body! And of course the genuine joy of meeting the people of the city who elected me, and of course those who didn't but might the next time.

The downside is the overload of cholesterol in the sysyem from the snack-boxes and burgers which have fuelled the campaign, and the full file of representations picked up on the doorstep which will take weeks of future work between the initial letter, the follow-up phone calls, and the final yeah or nay to the constituent.

Mostly it's been fun though. Now it's time for decisions-and that's up to you. The last five days, since the Leaders debate have been frustrating. I know I'm biased but I'm fed up of RTÉ presenters allowing the two Aherns, and finally Cowen to shout everybody into submission. How I long for the return of Olivia O' Leary, who would have told all the aforementioned to shut up while the other person was speaking, although not in those words.

I still believe that there's a mood for change out there. The thought of leaving this bumbling bunch of arrogant, aggressive ineffective and most importantly heartless leadership in place for another five years is unthinkable. If you feel the same get out and vote, and persuade everybody you can to get rid of this shower.

In Kilkenny please get out and give Michael O' Brien your Number One. Of all the people I have known in twenty years of politics, Michael is one of the straightest, most honest, most decent people I have encountered. He deserves your vote, and I ask you to get out and give it to him. Give your number two to Jim Townsend, and your 3,4 and 5 to Hogan, Phelan and Browne in order of your choice-they will play their part in getting Bertie out.

Personal Milestones and Pesky Cameramen!!

Twenty years later, and I finally got to complete a 10k. road run. Thanks largely to a night on the canvass, when I met Irene Hennebry, whose husband Peter runs the fine Evergreen Football club blog, I volunteered for the Kilkenny City Harriers Road race series. This started with a two mile run, which yours truly had missed on that very night, and continued with a four mile and then last week, a five mile run. These leave the Smithsland retail centre near the Woodies shop on the Kilkenny Ring Road, and continue out the Waterford road and up into the country roads of Grovine and Wallslough, before coming back down to home. The road is beautiful, and it's great to see fields of rape-seed showing that farmers are finally catching on to this biofuel.

Anyway, onto Monday afternoon, and a loose mid-life crisis to myself a few months ago that I would try the 10k distance for the Carer's Association, whose National headquarters is here in Kilkenny. The pressure was on, and I was delighted to make my longest distance since 1987. That year I had trained with friends for the Dublin City Marathon, only to get injured a week before the race.

So when I made it over the line in 52.25 on Monday (no sniggering you real runners out there), I was very happy indeed. Unfortunately, tonight means another six miles, and then three next week. Then, who knows. I'll keep going I hope,, and maybe try a half marathon next-any suggestions out there??

The final humility was to see the gregarious Limerick photgrapher, Dónal Foley of the Kilkenny Voice newspaper pointing his big wide angle lens-which was needed in my case- at me as I struggled to the line. I'll post his handiwork here later to give you all a good laugh, and to remind myself to leave the t-shirt on the next time-I did promise didn't I!! Meanwhile, tonight and a 58 minute 6 miles brought the half-marathon ambitions back to earth. The Radox eased the pain though-who knows?! Watch this space......