Maman Poulet

Tonight in Trinity College Dublin a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution will take place to discuss electoral reform. It’s believed to be the first time that the committee will have met outside the Oireachtas to debate. Discussions at the meeting will include presentations by members of the public on electoral reform. (Yes I know the meeting is only down the road, but you never know what this may have started! The decentralisation of the Dáil and Seanad cannot be too far away!)

Tonights meeting will then be followed by a panel discussion chaired by John Bowman with participants including Noel Dempsey, Minister for Transport, Professor Ken Benoit, head of the Department of Political Science, Senator Ivana Bacik, Trinity Fellow, Sean Ardagh, Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, Jim O’Keeffe, Vice Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee and The Hon. Mr. Justice Frank Clarke.

The event is hosted by TCD JS Irish Politics (3rd year) class and TCD Department of Political Science.

There will be a liveblog and webcast, more information can be found on TheStory.ie.  I’ll be liveblogging at some stage hopefully if the wifi goddesses oblige! So please join in and we’ll try and get some points across from the viewing public!

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The Seanad is debating the NAMA Bill and Alexia began a live blog of the debate yesterday which for this injured chicken was a delightful way of continuing my recuperation!

Some intriguing questions – Where was Shane Ross during the debate – ‘Business Regulation Expert’ too busy promoting the book? Or too wary of speaking in the house on the issue?  Why is Joe O’Toole of INTO and ICTU fame consistently voting with the Government on the issue? He thinks supporting NAMA is consistent with supporting social democracy according to Senator Alex White.

The Green Party contributions have been as numerous as in the lower house – ie. not a lot.

And then there’s been the tweeting Senators – this is now officially the the most tweeted event from members of the Oireachtas. Paschal Donohue,  Jerry Buttimer and sometimes even Dan Boyle are tweeting during the debate from the chamber – the heckles continue online and are captured in the Liveblog.

The debate in the Seanad has actually been of a high quality with speakers generally well prepared. And there has been a flock of ministers into bring the bill thorugh the house (Flock according to Frances Fitzgerald – whirlygig according to David Norris)

Hop over to the liveblog to have a look at the pictures, Duracell Bunnies and Ladybird books as well as the results and commentary as it happens.

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I’m in the RDS this afternoon for the Green Party Conference on the Renewed Programme for Government. There is a liveblog running and Green Party members are inside the hall tweeting. You can read the full document online and it was available a good hour before the printed version. Loads of reaction online to the contents already this morning. More from me on the liveblog later.

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I’ll be in Dublin Castle tomorrow at the National Count Centre with Cian and Alexia and a load of foreign media scratching their heads and wondering what is going on!

There is a liveblog already established for the count results and we are looking forward to pulling in news from around the country as the tallies come in. Cian posts about how to contact us with information and as usual in Irish blogging/online crowdsourcing and all hands on deck is the way to go.

Thanks in advance for helping out if you are at a count or otherwise following results. If you have contacts outside of Ireland who may be interested in keeping in touch with things you should point them in the direction of the liveblog and also to additional coverage and analysis on Irishelection.com.

I’m voting later today and will be on the look out for Cóirites monitoring the goings on. Watching them watching us eh? We even have a blog for watching the votes go in.

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Emerging from Montrose is the title of the new Current Affairs show to be hosted by Pat Kenny on Monday Nights.

The Frontline will be broadcast in the same timeslot as it’s predecessor but word is that it will be more news driven and flexible rather than panel or audience driven. No news on the Youtube/Twitter effect yet.

The first programme will air on September 28th – 4 days before the Lisbon 2 vote and just as I return from holidays to join in the liveblog fun no doubt!

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It’s the final Questions and Answers programme tonight. The funeral is a specially extended edition at 10.30pm on RTE1 with 20 mourners as guests. (Kathy Sheridan, one of the better panellists over the years interviewed John Bowman in Saturday’s Irish Times).

Unfortunately there are very few Q&A clips on Youtube – so jogging your moment with ‘the best of’ was going to be very difficult.

But you may be able to relive them for us without clips for Maman Poulet’s Q&A awards?

The 1990 presidential election and Brian Lenihan Snr and his claims of having ‘no hand, act or part’ in attempt to pressurise President Hillery not dissolve the Dáil comes to mind for me.

My favourite guests – Michael D. Higgins, Pat Rabbitte (shock!), and Nell McCafferty when she was on form.

I’m also thinking up awards categories that you might not hear of on tonights show. Care to add a few?

Most frequent audience member award?
There must be UCD Alumni (Kevin Barry Cuman members in particular) all over the world who got plenty of free beer on regular Monday nights to keep them going through college – some probably have showreels on the basis.

Most tokenistic female panelist ever?
Q&A was legendary for it’s one female panellist among all the lads.

Tonight’s programme promises archive clips and it’ll be liveblogged.

Have you other award categories we could use in a Q&A awards programme?

Meanwhile this is the only clip on Youtube I could find apart from Michael O’Brien’s recent compelling intervention. It’s a good one of Dermot Ahern and Pat Rabbitte pre the last general election.

not

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Understatement!

I’ll let other people talk about the liveblog and the results. The weekend was stunning on a personal note and it was brilliant to work with Cian, Alexia, Mark, and Damien over Saturday and Sunday in bringing it all to life and have inputs from so many others around the country. Thanks again to D4 hotels for the room for the blogger HQ and like many of the readers and commenters on the live blog it seems people are saying roll on the General Election and online media bringing news to people who are interested and those who claim not to be intersted but really are!

I’m very tired but have had a few thoughts simmering – excuse the babble!

• Yes there was a huge wave of anger against this government and people took it out on them and the Greens in particular.  I’m going to mention one factor – the removal of the Xmas bonus – don’t mess with the older people! Time and again this election I’ve heard it said in anger – it’s bigger than the mess with the banks as a reason people voted.

• Dublin Councils are going to be great fun to watch for the next 4 years – All shades of the ‘left’ in the majority? – Labour polled extremely well in Dublin City and elsewhere and with SF, People Before Profit (Yes I know I’m not alone in thinking the Swimmies change name and get 5 seats in Dublin!) various Independents and the Socialist party polling well on Joe’s wings it’s going to be messy.   FF only have 18 seats or so out of 130 seats in the 4 Dublin councils.  Berties Dubs have deserted the party.  And Mannix Flynn will be very interesting to watch – I would like one of his posters I believe he’ll be tweeting where to meet him to get one when he takes them down on Tuesday.

• Lots of women were elected and I look forward to seeing the stats on the candidates and how many got elected. Now can we see if there would be more transparency in politics as a result? And will the many forthcoming selection conventions for Dail tickets see an end to women candidates who have done the work being pushed aside for parachute candidates. Many many other questions there…

• Frank McBrearty Jnr got elected! (Despite vandalism of posters and rows in street with Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher and also Labour not having any organsiation of note in Donegal)

• Maureen O’Sullivan TD – nobody saw that coming – but nobody in media would admit they didn’t see it coming either yesterday when they were so lovely about her! Well done to the Gregory Group!

• And yes there is a bit of me sad for Paschal Donohue who became a bit of a personal favourite for his tweeting and his personal blog and media coverage and the rotweiller emerging from a puppy.  He worked extremely hard and survived being knocked down by a car and having Enda in his ear constantly.

• Simon Harris – you will remember him – 4 quotas for Greystones Town Council? And elected to Wicklow County Council also on over 1.5 quotas! Surely the mascot must have been thanked in his speech?

• The look of bewilderment on Green Party faces – is it political naiveity?  To quote a person I heard at a Labour party coalition conference 17 years ago if  ‘you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas’.  And I know it’s really sad to lose one’s seat and 14 councillors lost their seats – someone texted me yesterday and said ‘maybe a lot of those green jobs announced in the last month still need filling…’ ouch.  From watching their party conference earlier this year I know there is a lot of soul searching going on – well the search needs to end and the party needs to cop on and call their partners on more than a few things and stop ignoring them like they don’t exist. It’s not like FF want to run to the polls anytime soon is it?

• Lisa Connell got 229 first preferences in the Dublin South West Inner City Constituency.

• RTE had a terrible election results weekend  – sport took precedence over radio coverage which is usually the must listen to at election time. I don’t want to hear it was only the locals/euros – this was the most important mid term election in decades and they went missing on Saturday Afternoon and evening and until 9pm last night.  The money must be really running out in RTE ?  Or were they worried about offending someone?

• Newstalk played a blinder with their RDS stage and webcam. Local radio was a joy to tune into – Highland radio, Shannonside, Radio Kerry amongst the ones I and others listened to.  Some local papers were on the ball too with publication of counts online and also twittering from counts – The Mayo News, Westmeath Examiner and Tallaght Echo stand up and take a bow!

• Will George Lee TD continue his town hall meetings? When will we know more about George’s thoughts on things other than the economy?

• Next time the Irish Times do a Campaign Watch blog, well I hope they think before they write – it was really below par for the Irish Times who are the leading media outlet for blogging and the paper of record. It was as bad as the Phoenix on a slow week and sometimes worse than reading the Star on Sunday at times.

And finally for all those wheelie bins out there – time to fight back against those who are looking for you and claim you went missing!

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Marian Finucane stumbled over the B word a few weeks ago in reference to tomorrow’s Emergency Budget and Bludget seems most apt in terms of the fear that exists in some quarters. Over the weekend there was some downplaying saying it was not going to be as bad as feared – this even after the alarming exchequer figures released last week!?

Yesterday Fianna Fáil released another video of An Taoiseach addressing the nation (or people who happen to drop by the FF website). No stumbling here, but we’re told that ‘we’ll come through it and at the end of the day look back and be proud of the collective effort we all made’. (Too easy I know to ask if it’s the collective effort to mess things up.)

Tomorrow afternoon as it all unfolds in Dáil Eireann there will be a live blog of the Emergency/Supplementary/Not so Mini Budget. Please come over and join in the analysis and reaction to Minister Brian Lenihan and the speeches of the opposition spokespersons. The tag for the microbloggers on Twitter is #bludget.

In the meantime if you are undertaking reality avoidance measures (or like me have not got a clue what will happen or what is best in the national interest) you may wish to play the fantasy budget and listen to others speculate thanks to Newstalk.

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24 searches for Madame Poulet yesterday – Contrary to popular belief I’ve never run a house of ill repute or appeared in an opera by Puccini

I assume my diction is a little poor from the radio chat with Mr. Tubridy and Damien yesterday but people found me anyway. It was very enjoyable and to hear Val and her special brand of engagement with himself. Ryan can’t say he doesn’t understand us or know anything about blogging and please don’t hesitate to ask a blogger for their qualified or otherwise opinions on so many things!

Anyway back to normal now and time for a bit of sleep, catching up on reading and some tlc etc. If you are new here welcome, enjoy, don’t forget to dip into irishblogs.ie for everyone else and let me know what you think along the way.

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Lots and lots of random thoughts from a day at the 72nd Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.

• Party Membership – Where were all the 30-40 year olds? Mostly running for election in the locals? Or working for the organisation or a minister? But as members where were they? What’s the Party age profile? All I saw really the Ogras’ and the over 55’s and some well over that.

• Where were the disabled members? 4,000 people and a TD and MEP but disabled people don’t seem to do party politics or have the resources to attend conferences. This is not a Fianna Fáil specific problem. I saw one member and maybe there were many more??

• I know Fianna Fáil have membership from ethnic minority and candidates and they were visible speaking and there was a shot to the section in audience where many of them sat. Is there a caucus within the party?

• I know there are Lesbian and Gay members of Fianna Fail, I saw a few gay men there today, some of whom don’t like to see an out lesbian around but that’s always been the way and not just in Fianna Fáil. I assume someone is lobbying Dermot Ahern on Civil Partnership?  Caucus meetings?

• In reference to above – Cowen’s speech - It was a speech nearly devoid of mention of anything beyond the economy and banks…It was about all standing together and weren’t the banks terrible. So if you were waiting on your rights to participate in society equally and weren’t an economic unit or had double and triple disadvantages forget about it. I’ll leave others to do the finer details on the announcements – but it was clear little new was announced yesterday except by An Taoiseach.  I kept waiting for the news today but there was little. Dermot Ahern had a bank raid and got good mileage off camera for it, and did any one else think the other raid – ie. Anglo Irish bank raid by Gardai et al was useful speechwise?

• Some Junior Ministers got a chance to shine today but only when no RTE cameras were around doing live coverage in the afternoon. They were the ones from policy areas where cabinet seats were held by Greens or a PD. It must rankle a bit not to have the main minister but gives the juniors a little chance to glow.

• So little of political Ard Fheiseanna are covered by the mainstream media these days and probably because it’s thought people are no longer interested. But the responses to liveblogging today have been very positive, people learnt things, maybe different things and traffic on blogs was high and lots of new people took part by reading or twittering or blogging. So it ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it? (Bananarama moment!)

To the Fianna Fáil party – (and FG/Labour/Greens are you reading this?)

• Firstly thanks – we got passes, tables, wifi, plugs and food – does anyone do anything other than eat in the press room? – A happy press marches on it’s appetite maybe!  From what I could see bloggers went everywhere we knew about and got to cover gaggles and sit in the press area in the main conference hall. Also we could also get text alerts for doorstepping or other events – this was very useful.
• Put the Ministers speeches up online – first the scripts from Ministers and later the videos. Paper speeches are not very web 2.0. More coverage would be possible if we could cut and paste text – or maybe you don’t want us/mainstream media to cover it?
• Ask bloggers what they thought after the event and get ready for next time. Maybe have a blogger specific coverage event/briefing opportunity? It’ll take me a while to think it all through but I think the coverage from those there yesterday was very comprehensive given numbers and resources. Next time it’s safe to say we’ll need more briefing especially for those who don’t know their way round a political event.
• Also remember the bloggers following online – maybe sign them up to a blogger mailing list?
• It’s a first – ie first time bloggers went en masse (not first time asked by party though) and we can hopefully work together on it again and come back next time?

I’ve loads to say to the Mainstream Media -who I think today got their first full on view of blogging in action in Ireland.

• like  – yes we blog for free, we have fun doing it.
• We can teach you how to blog  (yup I overheard one journo saying ‘I must learn how to blog’)
• We can cover things quicker than you can in a different way.  Some of it short and pithy, some of it indepth and considered.  With bits of audio, video and picture thrown in for variety.
• Stop questioning our sanity.
• We’re not selfish. We took our place at the table and enjoyed ourselves and shared information amongst ourselves.
• You’ll stop staring at us soon enough! (It was like Vicky Pollard giving me the evils at one stage this afternoon but I did like having info to give out before other people had it thanks to Twitter and Bloggers!!)

Finally a word of thanks to the bloggers in City West – Eoin, Gavin (the Videos are his),  Mark, and all the bloggers and livebloggers and tweeters all over the world who were following online and joining in, commenting and creating their own content.

And hello to all my new Fianna Fáil supporting readers and twitter followers? Come join the fun and comment away!?!

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