Sense at last on Valentia Station

It's rarely I blog about South Kerry, 'm'áit dúchais' but tonight is genuinely an occasion for celebration for an embattled community. As a local election candidate in the area almost ten years ago I was one of those campaigning against the closure of Valentia coastguard station and the downgrading of Valentia weather station, which is of course based in Cahersiveen and was where my Dad worked for many years.

While we didn't succeed in retaining all the services in Cahersiveen, the coastguard station survived until Minister Noel Dempsey, yes him the Minister who tried to take away Kilkenny's city status and to reintroduce college fees, tried to close the scenic but extremely effective station. Here's what he said in 2007.

"I have confirmed that locating one on the east coast and one on the west coast is the preferred option and that the east coast centre should be co-located with the HQ."

The station has provided a superb service to seafarers for generations and provides invaluable employment to a small fishing community which has been ravaged by emigration and the decline of fishing.

Radio communication has a historic place in the life of Valentia, putting it at the heart of the telecommunications history of the world. It was from just down the road in Knightstown that the first trans-atlantic cable was laid in 1866, sending the first electronic message from Europe to America.

Now the doughty fighters of 'The Island' and their allies all over the Iveragh penninsula have succeeded in defeating yet another Minister. The fact that they had to campaign nationally for ten years will give the lie to claims from both John O' Donoghue and the Healy Rae clan that they were responsible for victory. Instead the people of Oileán Dairbhre should take a bow at having stood up for themselves. Well done also to Tommy Broughan TD who as our communications spokesperson has consistently stood up for the people pf the area. Like us in Kilkenny and Carlow, the people of South Kerry badly need the return of a Labour voice to represent them in Dáil Éireann.

To appreciate the history of seafaring in the area, one only needs to recall the words of that great local poet Tomás Rua Ó Súilleabháin in his famous poem and song over 150 years ago:

'Amhrán na Leabhar'

Go Cuan Bhéil Inse casadh mé,

Cois Góilín aoibhinn Dairbhre,

Mar a seoltar flít na farraige,

Thar sáile i gcéin.

I Portmagee do stadas seal,

Faoi thuairim intinn maitheasa,

D'fhonn bheith sealad eatarthu,

Mar mháistir léinn.

Is gearr gur chuala an eachtara,

Ag cách mo léan!

Gur i mBord Eoghain Fhinn do chailleathas,

An t-árthach tréan.

Do phreab mo chroí le hatuirse,

I dtaobh loinge an taoisigh chalma,

Go mb'fhearrde an tír í 'sheasamh seal,

Do ráib an tséin.

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.

Here comes Barack-the speech of a lifetime

Watching and wishing I was in Chicago-just listened to Martin Luther King's daughter saying that tonight proves that her father's death was not in vain-Oh what a night

Here somes the concession

At last a gracious speech from McCain. How right he is about it being inspirational and how appropriate to reflect on the historical change for African Americans.

Oregon for Obama and the Republicans have got their 40 seats. Interesting to see the crowd booing and cheering Palin-will we see her back in 4 years?

Uachtarán Obama

A big hour ahead the lads say on CNN. Aren't they right that it would be magic if Hawaii put him over the top to win particularly after his Gran's death yesterday. And how right this latest comment about how amazing a path it is over 5 years to go from hardly known senate candidate to President of the US. Finally Gloria is honest enough to say that age was a factor and the mad choice of Sarah Palin. Maybe the Irish media including Myers and George Hook will admit that she's a head-case.

Yahoo-Virginia goes Democrat after 44 years. That's a real breakthrough.

Yeeees-CNN call it for Obama-he's the New President of the most powerful country of the world. 44 years after the murder of Martin Luther King it has happened. All the racist naysayers and cynics have got their answer and our faith in humanity is restored. Here's to the US reclaiming its place in decency and humanity. Tears in my eyes but feck it. The opnly day that compares with this night was Mandela's release. Well done to great people like Samantha Power who knew how great this man is.

A Úachtaráin Obama, fáilte romhat agus go n-eiri leat!

207 votes in-getting there

63 votes to go in electoral college. This could be over by 4 all things going well. 67% of Latino vote going to Obama according to exit polls after all the nonsense about Latinos not coming ftrom Clinton to Obama. Even in Florida, he's getting 57% of Latinos including the Cuban immigrants-that's some going.
Come on let's be having Florida and put us out of our misery.
Texas called for McCain-would have been nice to bring it back blue but not tonight.

Now we're motoring-Ohio in

Looks like it's President elect Barack Obama. The great folks of Ohio came through for Obama and CNN are talking about McCain needing a miracle. They've switched off the telly at McCain campaign HQ and the lovely people at Fox TV are looking very glum indeed. Happy Days-so far!! Poor old Hank Williams Jr. gets to entertain at the Repuublican wake-give me the Bosss any day.

Senate Majority-Will they make it magic 60?

52 Senate seats called now. First Democratic majority for a while. If they get 60 life will be a lot easier for Obama. Hopefully they'll get there.

Pennsylvania In-Time to start the celebrations!!??

Can we start to breathe easily at last? Obama is predicted to take Penn State the first of the biggies and is leading in a few of the other crunch states. It looks like all my hopes of the last few years are coming true and that we will have Change at last. It also look like the Senate will come solidly blue at last too. Obama Abú. Here with Gary and Fionn and a big jug of coffee-burgers and bud have been consumed and Mar and Mark chickened out and hit the bed. Come on now give us Florida and Ohio. Still I'm not going to bed till McCain concedes-I remember 2000!!

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.

Green Party Hypocrisy on class sizes

Having just returned from Dublin and the well attended demonstration on the education cuts, I think you deserve to see this campaign ad from the Green Party- the party who couldn't bother to turn up to listen to the Labour Party motion in Dáil Éireann tonight. Listen to the young girl's first priority for her future.

The phrase "You can't handle the truth" comes to mind!

Tina Fey-Much less scary than Palin!

You have to see this! She's the woman.

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.

Bronach ataimid- a bad day's work

Rarely have I felt as depressed as I do today by a political decision. After three weeks of postering canvassing texting blogging and harrassing I have to reflect on the will of the Irish people. As a democrat I will defend the right of the people to make what I consider to be a disastrous mistake but I really am at a loss as to what will happen next.
There is a flippancy and even a bit of arrogance in our presuming that 'they'll put it right' and that we'll get another chance to prove ourselves 'Good Europeans' but I get the feeling watching EU leaders over the past 24 hours that we may have tested their patience once too often.
As a socialist and trade unionist I am appalled that Irish workers have given Margaret Thatcher and the European right the biggest political victory of this generation. The Social Charter has been the holy grail of the left and European Trade Union movement for all my adult and took twenty years to make it into the laws of Union. I hope Jack O' Connor, SIPTU and the so-called left-wingers in Sinn Fein and the Socialist party can find a way of explaining to my children how they talked their way out of the best list of workers rights ever secured for our community.
The ball is now in our court however and a few important questions now need to be answered:
1. Do we really want to be part of the EU or not. Being so while thinking we can reject complex treaties painstakingly negotiated by all the national Governments including our own doesn't sit well with that assertion.
2. What does democracy mean to us? The idea that we must uniquely insist on holding referenda every few years on complex agreements and reject them because 'I don't understand it' is puzzling to the citizens of the 26 other democracies who gave their elected Governments the right to interpret the treaty as being in their best interests. Are their politicians better or more trustworthy than ours? I for one am fed up of listening to people condemning our politicians yet walking out blindly as they did a year ago and putting them back into office.

Reasons to be Positive-Why Vote Yes on Thursday

Just my own story to start off with. In 1986 as Deputy President of the Union of Students in Ireland,I opposed the Single European Act, the first EU refendum in which I had a vote. I was convinced by the neutrality argument in particular, believing the stuff about a European army being created any day now!- See how much the message has changed?
Two things happened after that. Firstly I moved back to rural South Kerry in 1991 and began to see the reality of EU funding. As a community activist I saw the transformation for local communities brought about by funding through initiatives like the LEADER programme, which my wife managed in the area. The insistence by the EU on genuine community consultation and empowerment was totally different from National Government approaches. The EU really believes in 'bottom-up' development and the principle of subsidiarity or the making of decisions at local level,a message the people of disadvantaged communities were starving to hear.

Also at around the same time I watched along with the world as the people of Bosnia and Kosovo were slaughtered in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century, while we stood by along with the west, crippled by our so-called neutrality. I believed then and do now that our neutrality should be a force for good, not a Pontius Pilate reason for sitting on our hands while innocent people die, and yes if that means that we as Europeans should have a peace-keeping or even intervention force to prevent genocide, that's ok by me. Try reading Samantha Power's wonderful yet disturbing book on genocide if you need convincing.

Since Maastricht then I've been enthusiastically in favour of deepening European unity and will continue to fight for the world's most successful peace process in history.

To the wire- less than 2% in it now.

What a system- the gap between Clinton and Obama is now just 20,000 votes and we're waiting for Lake County beside Chicago to decide whether Obama can make it a really unexpected double tonight. CNN and Fox both saying he can win it in theory. If he does it will be a huge shock and the Rev. Wright's apparent attempts at sabotage will not have worked. One interesting figure is that only 10% of Indiana's voters are black. For Obama to even come close to winning in a 90% non-black state is astonishing after the recent race controversy.

A cliffhanger-now who can't 'close the deal'?

3 hours after the polls closed in Indiana and Hillary hasn't 'closed the deal', as she accused Obama of failing to do in recent weeks.Looks like Obama is winning North Carolina by up to 20%, while the gap in indiana is down to 4% or just over 30,000 votes. It's fascinating to look at the polls in recent months in Indiana . Obama only led there briefly and only by a maximum of 5%. On the other hand Clinton led just three weeks ago by 16% in one poll. Obama's speech was fighting and answered some of the nonsense about his lack of patriotism. It also looks like the Rev. Wright stuff doesn't seem to have stuck. Could well be that tonight's the night the 'Comeback Kid 2' came unstuck.

Back on track-again

North Carolina is in and Barack Obama is back on track. Fox news and now CNN are calling North Carolina tonight for Barack Obama. They're also saying that Indiana is too close to call. He's won another major state, albeit a heavily black one. If he can keep it tight in Indiana, this race is still his to win. The other interesting thing from the exit polls tonight is that large numbers feel Hillary Clinton has been making unfair attacks in both states. Interesting night ahead!

On a related topic, saw a magic North Carolina group called Chatham County Line at the Rhythm and Roots festival at the weekend. If you've never been to this festival, you need to get here for the May bank-holiday weekend next year(remember the bank holiday the Labour Party gave you when we were in Government!). Wel done to John Cleere and company for a great weekend's music.