Is Mary Harney really the most cunning of them all?

So Michael Mc is gone. Lost his seat and is finished in public life.

So, is Mary Harney really the most cunning of all?



It was widely leaked in the media that McDowell was questioning Harney's leadership of the PDs. We were told there was some party meeting and the knives were out but Mary stayed put.

Few months later, Mary calls a press conference and steps down as leader, but remains a Minister.

Micky Mc takes over...then the whole Bertie-gate thing blows up...Did Mary know it was on the way and get out of the limelight just in time...leaving McDowell to take the heat?

Micky Mc is a very polarising politician. You either love him or hate him, and most people profess to hate him.

Mary stepped down, and he ended up on the PD pedestal...now he is gone. Lost his seat, took out most of his party with him, his ego damaged, and he is retiring from public life.

Mary kept her seat without much of a struggle, and will now, I assume, take back over, as party leader.

She has gotten rid of her in-party nemesis in spectacular fashion...

So what next for Micky Mc? Back to the Four Courts? Next EU Commissioner?

It's Count Day

It's count day...let the fun and games commence.

The RTE Exit Poll released at 7am this morning shows good news for FF.

FF - 41.6%
FG - 26.3%
LAB - 9.9%
IND - 7.5%
SF - 7.3%
GRN - 4.8%
PD - 2.6%

It should be remembered that this poll was based on First Preferences only, so where the transfers go, will make all the difference.


As the tallies start to come in, I'll be keeping a close eye in particular on the following:

Joan Burton (LAB) - Dublin West
Jackie Healy-Rae (IND) - Kerry South
Tom Parlon (PD) - Laois/Offaly
Jerry Crowley (IND) - Mayo
Paudge COnnolly (IND) - Cavan/Monaghan
Donnie Cassidy (FF) - Longford/Westmeath

If all get returned, I make a nice bit of money at 20/1 with Paddy Power.


If further proof was needed about the impact that Rock The Vote had, read this post from JUST DONAL who didn't know the Green Party existed for some reason...


I was very surprised on my drive to work this morning to notice that all the FF election posters were already down...the FG team were out in the process of taking theirs down. Well done both FF + FG!


Finally, for online election count coverage today, check out IRISHELECTION.COM who are offering blog, free text and rather snazzy voicemail updates. Check out THIS post on how it all works.


Meanwhile over on
POLITICS.IE they are also offering free text updates through Twitter, all the latest news and a very active forum!

Funnies

This turtle sure didn't give up! He can move fairly fast too





I don't wanna go to Japan anymore





Ring Sex Lines?

It's All GO! Vote 07

It's all go on the streets of Ashbourne this lunchtime, with both the Fine Gael and Labour candidates running in and out of shops looking for first preferences.

Dominic Hannigan (Lab) has Proinsias De Rossa MEP in tow, while Regina Doherty (FG) has a band of merry men with nice stickers and rosettes with her.

Both these candidates are set to slug it out for the third and final seat in Meath East.

Both Mary Wallace (FF) and Shane McEntee (FG) are a 'shoo-in' to take the first two seats.

Meanwhile, it's caption competition time...wonder what was going on in Gordon's head when he met Enda...electrified perhaps?

Rock The Vote? Even Bosco is at it...

In other news this lunchtime...Leanring Dublinese...

Am currently listening to...

SILVERCHAIR - "Straight Line"

Band are from Oz and am liking this song a lot at the moment.

Best Job Title?

Forget your 'Junior Vice President in charge of Blah, Blah Blah' type titles...while scanning the Sunday papers yesterday, I came across this beauty:

HEAD OF LEAKAGE

Head of Leakage

CIRCA £62,500, plus 10% bonus and final salary pension
Ref: NIHL/07

Imagine the pulling power of that title down the pub!

Thank feck it's Friday

The debate last night - Meh.

It was uber-boring. No real winner and it suffered from RTE over-hyping it in advance.

Watching the analysis after with Frank Flannery (FG) and P.J. Mara (FF) reminded me of watching these two in action:




Two things to get you in happy mood this Friday:

The Six video (bet it gets stuck in your head)




And this very good promo for Home & Away..."you know we belong together..."




And finally for today, this is DONAL



I share an office with Donal. Doesn't he look fetching in his snazzy new geansai that he bought only last night in Pull & Bear. He listens to lots of Eurovision songs and is able to sing along to them no matter what language they are in. He also screeches when there is a fly buzzing about the office.

He, as you can see, is today wearing a tiger mask that came in as part of a promo pack for a band called Pull Tiger Tail

And people wonder why i often question my sanity! Thank feck it's Friday!

Biffo Inhaled

Poor Ol' Biffo. Seems he's admitted to smoking, and worst of all inhaling, a few joints while a student in UCD in the 70s.

From NewsTalk:

There's fresh controversy for the Government this morning. Finance Minister Brian Cowen has admitted smoking cannabis. He's told Hot Press magazine that unlike Bill Clinton, he did inhale. Mr. Cowen says he enjoyed a few spliffs in the UCD bar while a student there in the 1970's. Fianna Fail media handlers are said to be furious over the revelation. The big showdown of campaign '07 happens tonight when the Taoiseach and the man who wants his job go head to head in a live TV debate. Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny will spend 80 minutes thrashing out the issues, and their answers could decide who'll lead the next Government.

Now what seems most bizarre about this whole story to me is that "Fianna Fail media handlers are said to be furious over the revelation." Cowen is an intelligent and astute politician. Yes, he is known to lose the rag from time to time, but I doubt he took leave of his senses while being interviewed by someone from Hot Press.

Smacks to me of a stunt by said Fianna Fail media handlers to get Bertie out of the headlines for a few hours.

Biffo, do the party and Bertie a favour there and tell them that you smoked some pot back in the 70s when you were a young fella and knew no better. That'll keep Bertie's finances out of the news a while.

And it seems to have worked. No mention of Bertie's money on the news programmes this morning. I did however hear both Gerry Adams and Mary Hanafin being asked if they had ever smoked cannabis in the past. Gerry said 'not yet' while Mary said it wasn't in her nature as she doesn't drink or smoke. Little angel or wha?

The First Shouting Match....erm...I mean Debate

And so the first Prime Time election debate between the 4 leaders of the smaller parties is just over on RTE1.

The whole thing was a farce and none of the issues were debated to any great detail.
I really can't see this programme helping to sway any of the undecideds into making a decision towards the Greens, PDs, Labour or Sinn Fein.

Mark Little was piss-poor at chairing the debate, so it tended to meander from topic to topic without any real reason and descended into a shouting match a handful of times.

Trevor Sergeant actually turned me off the Green Party. He didn't offer any substance and seemed to be there with the one agenda of attacking the PDs. He threw his toys out of the pram everytime McDowell opened his mouth...and what was written on his hand??? Perhaps a bit of tension spill over from the Rumble In Ranelagh ?

Gerry Adams seemed way out of his depth. Almost not interested in the whole thing. Mary Lou would have been so much better.

Michael McDowell was on the defense from the start, but as the only government representative there, it was to be expected. He gets runner-up prize on quote of the night for: "...the left, the hard left and the left overs." Aimed at Labour, Sinn Fein and the Greens respectively.

Pat Rabitte didn't say as much as I expected, but seemed to keep his head and was articulate. In my opinion, he won the debate by a nose, only by giving us the quote of the debate:

"Michael, you are like a menopausal Paris Hilton...you are an inveterate attention seeker"

Thank god Mark Little is not chairing 'the main event' tomorrow. Bring back Olivia O'Leary, all is forgiven.

By the way, did you notice how often Gerry Adams said "situation" ?
Take a listen HERE for a laugh.

Fianna Fail "Peace" Party Political Broadcast

*vomit*

Mr Tayto now 5000/1 on being next Taoiseach

Paddy Powers, never ones to shy away from a publicity opportunity, are now offering odds of 5000/1 on Mr Tayto being the next Taoiseach.

According to their site:

Over 100 punters have already invested their crisp money on Mr Tayto which would result in a payout in excess of a half a million euro should he become leader of the 30th Dáil!

In other election news from Paddy Powers:

Enda Kenny has overtaken Bertie Ahern in the betting to become next Taoiseach for the first time. It's now Day 17 of the Election campaign and the relevent parties now have just nine days to turn things around.

Enda is now installed at the odds-on 8/11 favourite to become next Taoiseach while Bertie Ahern has drifted to 11/8, his longest odds of the campaign to date. Punters are also putting their money behind the 'Alternative Government', which is now the 6/4 favourite for success.

I always tend to believe bookies ahead of opinion polls as they seem to have the inside track and obviously have a lot more money riding on it!

Meanwhile, the Green Party seem to be winning praise for their Party Political Broadcast, which doesn't actually feature any of the Green candidates. Very slick.

Fine Gael / Labour transfer pact?

In other election news, it would seem that the Mullingar Accord is well and truly dead in the constituency of Meath East.

I was canvassed on Saturday by some of the people from Fine Gael's Regina Dohertys camp.

I was asked if I had any questions to ask on her policies or if I wanted anymore information. The guy doing the talking wanted me to give her my first preference.

Fair enough, and what about my second preference? Well according to the enthusiastic Fine Gaeler, that should go to Shane McEntee
Himself and Regina had apparently agreed a constituency split to maximise the vote.

I then said, so I assume you want my third preference to go to Labour's Dominic Hannigan

The reply - "No we don't want him in at all. So no preference please".

Now this left me a little bit shocked. I thought the whole point of Fine Gael/Labour alternative government option was that they had agreed on a vote transfer system?

Is Dominic Hannigan and his posse of canvassers asking people to give their second and third preferences to the Fine Gael candidates?

It's all a bit odd. Anyways, I've emailed Domininc Hannigan and Regina Doherty to get the official line, and will post the replies here if/when I get them.


EDIT - REPLY FROM DOMINIC HANNIGAN

Hi Michael

I am asking for number 1s for myself and for people to give their second and third preference for FG candidates McEntee and Doherty, in whatever order they like.

With best wishes

Dominic

EDIT - REPLY FROM REGINA DOHERTY

Hello Michael

I would very much value a no. 2 for my running mate, Shane McEntee and then we would ask for further preferences for Labour, and The Greens please.

Thanks for the vote of confidence and I will do my best to succeed

Regards

Regina

So it would seem the offical line is for the preferences to transfer, but it's a different story on the door-steps?


EDIT - REPLY FROM SHANE McENTEE TD

Dear Michael

Thanks for your E-mail.

I am advising voters to give their 2nd preference to my Fine Gael colleague Regina Doherty and their 3rd preference to Labour's Dominic Hannigan.

Best Wishes

Shane McEntee

Vote Mr Tayto update

Ashbourne Election Poster News UPDATE!

And so it would seem that all the Vote Mr Tayto posters have vanished from the lamp-posts of Ashbourne over the weekend. I seriously doubt that it was a concerted effort to take them down by Tayto, as opposed to some drunken scally-wags (ain't that a great word) taking them down to have them adorn their bed room walls.

There have been some great photographs floating around the Internet of defaced election posters. Ashbourne's contribution is pathetic by comparison, but here it is all the same:

Kids! Don't take drugs, they mess with your head.

Further proof that taking massive amounts of drugs make you uber paranoid...courtesy of DIGITAL SPY

Bobby Brown: 'Bin Laden wants me dead'

R&B star Bobby Brown has claimed that Osama bin Laden wants to kill him.

The 'My Prerogative' singer insisted that he fears for his life because he believes that bin Laden wants to marry his estranged wife Whitney Houston.

Bin Laden is described by the US State Department as "one of the most significant sponsors of Islamic extremist activities in the world today".

A fearful Brown made the revelations on ITV's 24 Hours With...Bobby Brown, airing next month.

He said of Bin Laden: "He wanted to have me killed because he was in love with Whitney. He wanted to marry Whitney and make her one of his wives. That's some s**t.

"I feared for my life. I'm still on my guard. The most wanted man in the world wants (me) dead."

And it gets better according to the DAILY MAIL

New Childern's Books

Vote Mr Tayto

So it would seem that Tayto are hijacking the election for their own advantage...and fair play to them.

Posters like these:



Are now adorning almost every lamp-post in Meath.

There's even a WEBSITE and a song.


EDIT - more pics added - apologies for the crappy quality. Better ones to follow tomorrow.

Leitrim - it DOES exist!

And so it seems that I've been wrong down through the years. Leitrim does indeed exist.

First stop was in Rooskey. Not a lot going on here to be honest. It does have a mad automatic 'lifty-uppy' bridge to let the boats going down the Shannon past. It is badly in need of a squirt of WD-40 oil though. The Centra do nice 99s and the carvery lunch in the Shannon Key West is alright.






Next stop was Carrick on Shannon, which as you can see from the sign is Ireland's Loveliest Riverside Town.

I wouldn't quite go as far as saying it was Ireland's loveliest, but it was nice. Some nice shops and a sort of craft village thing.

I also spotted A LOT of Leitrim registered cars.




And what was possibly most bizarre, and something I did not expect to see in a county that doesn't exist, was people playing cricket by the Shannon.




The good news is that I did manage to find the only set of traffic lights in the county. The pedestrian crossing in Carrick-on-Shannon:



And for your viewing pleasure, I also got them showing RED:



We stayed in a village called Dromohair, which consists of 3 pubs, a hotel, a chipper and three convenience stores.

The hotel is like Fawlty Towers. The pub on the other hand is nice. Pints of Carlsberg costing €3.40. Total bargain.

This is Dromohair by night:




On Sunday, we decided to go experience the enchanting atmosphere of Sligo, much promoted by Aine Chambers





We did manage to visit some of the places that Aine made videos at such as Dooney Rock:



And Lough Gill



And Sligo Beach (lots of surfers, not a lot of big waves):





I think a visit back to Sligo is called for at some stage in the not too distant future, when a full tour of the highlights from the old SligoZone videos is called for.

Things nearly turned sour in Sligo town on Sunday though when I spotted this:


In what was a return to the midweek rant - http://www.rathersnazzy.com/2007/04/mid-week-rant.html

Yes, it would seem that men push prams by walking along side them up whest too.



Some other bizarre signs that were spotted on my travels:

Leitrim...It's finally happening

I have long held the theory that Ireland's least populated county does, in fact, not exist.

Let's be honest, it sounds like a made-up county by the republican movement to round up the numbers because "32 counties" rolls off the tongue better than "31 counties".

They try to make it sound sexy (to geography buffs at least) by claiming it has Ireland's shortest coast-line.

In 2002, I raised my theory that Leitrim does not exist over a pint in a bar in County Cork.

My points:

Have you ever seen a Leitrim registered car?

Do you know anyone from Leitrim?

Is there anyone famous from Leitrim?

Have you ever heard Leitim being mentioned in the news?

Did you answer NO to those four questions? I did.

I probably go on about it a bit too much. So much so, my brothers bought me this jersey for Christmas last year.



Yes, it's the Leitrim GAA jersey.

In 2003, word filtered to "powers that be" that the very fabric of Leitrim was being questioned, so they put around a story that Leitrim was getting its first ever set of traffic lights, to be located in Carrick-on-Shannon. Has anyone ever actually seen these supposed red, amber and green lights in Ireland's smallest county?

I went to Wikipedia to see what famous sons and daughters Leitrim supposedly produced.

It listed both Sean Boylan and Colm O'Rourke. They both played for the Meath football team. So there is something suspicious going on there.

Pascal Mooney also got a mention. He is a Senator and Country music DJ. Obviously being paid by Bertie to pretend he is from Leitrim.

Some bloke called John Joe McGirl apparently also comes from Leitrim. He is obviously 'famous' for having a silly name.

Anyways, I've ranted on about the "leitrim theory" over the years and, at long last, I am making an exploratory trip this coming weekend to see does it actually exist or is it Ireland answer to the Bermuda Triangle.

There were three accommodation options.

The Commercial And Tourist Hotel in Carrick-On-Shannon, which lets be honest, sounds like something that belongs in Soviet-times.


The Shannon Key West Hotel which is in a place called Rooskey. Also sounds a bit Soviet for my liking.


So in the end I've opted to stay at The Abbey Manor Hotel which doesn't sound Commie at all. It also has the added bonus of being close to Sligo, so I can flake off over the border if needs be.

So does Leitrim exists...I will have the photo evidence next week...if they let me out alive...