Dogged Euro Campaigner Says It with Doggerel
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The Sunday Business Post May 18, 2014 News Focus 11 Election special Dogged Euro campaigner says it with doggerel able backstory. “I’m still a journalist with On the the Examiner,” O’Flynn says simply, as though it wasn’t a political question. “I campaign trail was an engineer before that.” Further down the street, he is greeted by shouting. “Oh, he’s giving out!” a grin- Anti-bailout ning man roars, watching O’Flynn ap- proach. “He’s giving out! He gives out too protester O’Flynn much!” O’Flynn is happily apprehended. He starts talking about Brussels, but is wants to take interrupted. “Do you listen to music?” the man demands. “Who are you into?” battle to Europe “Christy Moore,” O’Flynn answers, immediately. It’s the right answer. “Ah, you have it!”, the man exclaims, slapping him on the back. “All the same,” snaps a woman in dou- ble denim. “All the same. I don’t believe any of it. Sorry.” The shadows are lengthening on Bar- ronstrand Street. “I don’t care who gets in,” she says, barely looking up. “People assume he’s like the rest,” is Siobhan Brett the wistful observation of a canvasser. “People in our own parish laughed at us e have to run a when we started this, 12 or 16 of us.” He different kind watches O’Flynn share a joke with a cou- of campaign,” ple of shoppers and explains he’s started says Diarmuid Independent Euro canditate Diarmuid feeling good about the election in recent O’Flynn, using O'Flynn talks to voter Darren Skelton weeks. A childhood friend, O’Flynn is lengths of blue “the most single-minded man” he knows. ‘Wrope and bungee luggage cords to strap Picture: John Power A cyclist pulls up to tell O’Flynn that he an election poster to a lamp post on the likes him, follows him on “the Twitter”. Tramore seafront. “Myself and my wife said we’d go down The independent MEP candidate sees one-time county hurler, has been cam- Wrangler jeans and a short-sleeved out of Ireland”. He thinks voting should and join you on one of your marches,” posters as a waste (of almost everything) paigning in his parish, Ballyhea, for the shirt in green and brown plaid. He wears be mandatory. he says, swinging a leg over his crossbar. and a blight on streets, particularly on last three years – against promissory note a leathery braid on his wrist, another Both posters are tenderly taken down A local independent candidate, Monica streets in small towns. Consequently, bonds, in favour of a financial transaction around his neck. and loaded into the boot of O’Flynn’s Melay, wishes O’Flynn well. They swap his posters, his two posters, appear only tax, against a transatlantic trade partner- He has a distinctive moustache, close Volkswagen Passat, bound for Waterford, fliers. when he appears. ship and in favour of painstaking scrutiny to horseshoe, a wiry blend of copper and wooden posts slotted through a gap in “Time to act, reject the pact,” hers “We are the most informal campaign of the euro. grey. Quite a few people recognise him, the backseats. Two A4 print-outs (‘VOTE reads. “I like that,” O’Flynn beams, re- group that ever was. We’re not fooling Informal as the campaign group may know about the Ballyhea movement and #1’) are Sellotaped to the windows. ‘NO peating it. His election launch speech was ourselves,” he begins, gesturing in the be, every Sunday since March 2011 O’Fly- profess to like the premise. “The very best Bled from BONDHOLDER BAILOUTS’ reads a third, written in doggerel. It opens: direction of his canvassers, before cutting nn and supporters have marched in Cork of luck to you,” a man in a lemon polo smaller notice, above the dash. I’m Diarmuid O’Flynn from Ballyhea himself off to appeal to two passers-by. in opposition to “€70 billion of private shirt and shorts says, with a rare sincerity. the people, “Where were you before you went Entering the race for MEP “Lads”, he cries, “an independent in bank debt on the shoulders of the Irish O’Flynn says he is saddest about “the independent?” a white-haired man on For over three years we have marched with- Europe!”. The pair wordlessly accept leaf- people”. Or, as his election flyer puts it, destruction of people’s confidence in transfused to the Meagher’s Quay asks, dragging from a out pause lets and duck into a shop selling buckets, “bled from the people, transfused to the democracy”, but his own confidence in cigarette and sizing O’Flynn up with his Peeling the onion in Ireland’s cause spades and marbled plastic fishing rods. healthiest and the wealthiest”. serving MEPs seems, at best, middling. He healthiest and the eyes. A lot of people want to know this, Peeling the onion? Yes, the EU skin O’Flynn, a journalist, Corkman and O’Flynn is wearing a pair of black wants to see “a new kind of MEP coming wealthiest seemingly hopeful for an uncomfort- Seven layers of institutional admin. Fine Gael splashes the cash Constituency redraw takes a in push for two seats toll on battleworn candidates Constituency: he said.Like all the candidates Constituency: has been written off before, Ireland South in this geographically vast Midlands- but he has never before had a constituency, Kelly has found Northwest vote-gatherer like his running Number of seats: four it difficult to get to towns at the mate, sitting MEP Mairead Mc- Population: 1,678,079 Seats: four right time to meet the most Population: 1,637,104 Guinness, to compete with. people. She is the closest thing to a BY MICHAEL BRENNAN “The golden hour is lunch- certainty in the constituency time. And 4pm or 5pm, when BY MICHAEL BRENNAN to get a seat. griculture Minister Si- people are breaking off from But Higgins claimed he mon Coveney has said work. When you hit 5.30pm abour’s Lorraine Higgins had a totally different style Athat anything less than in a town, they’re gone,” he has climbed Croagh Pat- Independent MEP Marian Harkin is seeking to be re-elected of intensive canvassing of the two seats out of four in this said. Lrick as part of her cam- constituency. “It’s going well constituency will be a failure Simon Harris has been at- paign. And it will indeed be gan and Sinn Féin’s Matt Car- voters, which feeds into the on the ground, and I’m quite for Fine Gael. But the party tacking Sinn Féin’s candidate an uphill battle for her to win thy. She said that her approach belief among many candidates optimistic,” he said. is running three candidates Liadh Ní Riada – who is the a seat. But she said that she was to knock on the doors of that turnout for the elections The other candidates run- and the battle between them party’s Irish language officer was taking solace from previ- households and businesses, will be closer to the 50 per ning are: Diarmuid O’Flynn has been one of the most and the daughter of the com- ous candidates like Michael D rather than do leaflet drops. cent figure in 1999 than the (Independent), Jillian God- entertaining features of the poser Seán Ó Riada. Higgins, who was not always “I find a lot of small busi- 58 per cent turnout in 2004 sill (Independent), Kieran campaign. “Sinn Féin opposed the Lis- in pole position during the nesses are holding on by their and 2009. Hartley (Fianna Fáil), Jan There have been com- bon Treaty, which gave ex- presidential election race. fingernails. They are deter- Polls show that Harkin, van de Ven (Direct Democ- plaints from Fine Gael’s Si- tra powers to the European “It hasn’t changed my tack, mined to hold on, but they Flanagan and Carthy are all racy Ireland) Donal O’Rior- mon Harris’s supporters that Parliament. But now the Sinn it hasn’t changed my electoral just want a small break in the very much in the running dan (Fis Nua), Richard Cahill Cork-based Senator Deirdre Féin candidate talks about us- strategy. I’m out there fighting Budget,” she said. for MEP seats. There is more (Independent), Theresa He- Clune is delivering her own Labour’s Phil Prendergast on the hustings ing the extra powers that the for every vote,” she said. Harkin said she had also en- doubt about the fate of sitting aney (National Party), Peter “economic stimulus”, such is parliament has. That’s the sort The constituency redraw, countered many disillusioned Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins. He O’Loughlin (Independent). the scale of spending on her last week in a Clare FM debate queries about the announce- of inconsistency you get,” he prompted by the reduction election campaign. (which is supposed to be his ment of water charges, which said. But Ní Riada is very much in the number of Irish MEPs Sitting Fine Gael MEP Sean campaigning territory). he said could not have been in the race. from 12 to 11 in order to ac- Kelly, who is widely expected Kelly is finding that it is far worse timed. The fate of Labour’s Phil commodate new EU mem- to retain his seat, is unhappy more difficult than his first run “There is definitely a frus- Prendergast is more uncer- ber Croatia, had turned the with Clune not mentioning in 2009, when the wind was tration among the squeezed tain. She got a huge boost in Midlands-Northwest into an him on her advertisements at his back.