Because I vote SF.
I think she has done a good job in building a profile and bringing attention to issues with limited publicity given to the EU Parliament.
Mick Wallace and Clare Daly will do fuck all in Europe of consequence, it is a cushy gig for them. They are going there for a pretty obvious reason but lads here have their head in the sand. She was booted from her party for a reason.
Hereâs your clear point.
1- A personal attack, based not on her work but on who she chooses to sleep with?
2- I love the second line for itâs pure utter useless bullshitery. But putting that aside, Apparently Lynn is an excellent MEPâŠbut obviously that doesnât matter a shit according to your later points.
READ what is said.
Lynn Boylan will want to be in the Dail.
Just like any Senator worth their salt.
The Senate and Europe are B Team legislators. Retirement homes, places to build a profile/credentials etc
Clare Daly wants to be in Europe with the VAT dodger.
Why is she running for Europe if she wants to be in the Dail? Seems like shes wasting everyoneâs time
Must be some life being a MEP. You get to trouser excessive expenses, can base yourself on the continent, good salary, no local constituents breaking your balls about trivial matters etc.
Based on the blatent hypocrisy of it.
She was kicked out her party for a reason.
Your sum total of contributions on Clare Daly was that she was there for the abortion debate. So was Lynn
All over it before the party had a position on it, brave
https://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/36555
Lynn was all over the rallies, when the party werenât
https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/26378
Fighting for it in the 32
Countless stories and tweets from her in favour. Just because you want 6.1 that gets more of your attention.
Whatâs the craic with Ming. Is he over in the EU acting the martyr, giving out about the EU?
Youâre being very strange here fella. Daly has been an activist on womenâs rights and abortion in particular for YEARS. Not just in the run up to the last referendum. She was at it when Boylan was pretending to be a brilliant rep for Kerry and was saying nothing about womenâs rights.
You are twisting yourself in knots trying to beat up Daly. She has been an excellent, formidable public representative for years. Trying to say otherwise is stupid.
But trying to call all MEPs shit while arguing Boylan is brilliant is even more stupid. Keep going. Itâs fantastic to watch.
Because the Party want it
Why did Alan Kelly go in there in 2009?
Why did Gay Mitchell go in 2004?
Why did Brian Hayes in 2014?
I could go on.
Read up on this, if you are a politician you donât want to go unless you are in retirement mode (Proiseas DeRossa in 04), build profile (Mary Lou in 04) or your party wants you to (Gay Mitchell in 04). Itâs like Martin McGuinness, I know for a fact that he did not want to be President over Deputy First Minister but you do what you do for the Party.
Why did Joe Higgins and Paul Murphy get out as soon as they could? Because they wanted to actually enact change.
The ironic thing is that if you actually like Mick or Clare then there is absolutely no way you want them in Brussels.
What do you mean, pretending to be a brilliant rep. She was a local activist until 2014 while Daly is nearly 10 years older and was in Parliament for 3 years longer.
Just because you pay attention to 6.1 more than RTEâs European Parliament report doesnât give Clare Daly any monopoly over this issue.
How is Clare Daly going to actually influence change from Europe. Answer that question.
Heâs there because he was shitting his pants that he would lose his seat. He got profile on a couple of issues. Indys are always under threat of losing their seat against Party machines. Finian McGrath was squeaking home election after election despite having a bit of a profile and a popular base. The most successful true independent of them all in Tony Gregory had the benefit of getting loadsa cash from Charlie back in the day. Itâs the reason why Stephen Donnelly legged it to a party when he could. The last election was actually an aberration in that respect.
1- What are you talking about here? Youâve mentioned 6.1 a few times. Not sure why.
2- So Clare Daly is all over this issue too, but not a monopoly? ok weâre getting somewhere?
3- I made the point earlier youâd want Daly in the Dail. In fact my mother in law did. You dropped your KoolAid and started gurning about 6.1 and anti Shinner paranoia. And most importantlyâŠhow all MEPS are shit/Useless/powerless (Lynn Boylan).
4-On the first issue, I mean pretending to be someone else. Like changing your name to try to get elected. In the same way that paedophiles try to change their name to get past Garda Vetting.
I mention it cos the EU Parliament gets little to no coverage. So no wonder you arenât going to see Lynn Boylan making regular speeches - but go on the SF YouTube channel and you will see them all the time.
Which person do you regular see EU Parliament speeches from? Nigel Farage, that should tell you a bit on how the media treat it.
Why should Lynn Boylan he criticized for the limited profile that gets v the Dail?
I have been up front. Lynn Boylan will of course want to be in the Dail. She has done a good job in the limited confines of the EU Parliament. She has ambitions for more. Clare and Mick want to be there for what exact reason?
Can you explain what the EU Parliament is, its powers and what they hope to achieve. Iâm upfront on the party political nature of this. I think it is odd that Independent politicans who claim to care would give up their seats in a Parliament with actual power.
I am conflicted because of course I would like Clare Daly out of the DĂĄil. I think the other I4C member has left the council so there isnât a risk he will take her votes. The risk is that SF will get another seat in Dublin Fingal even though it was FG and FF who just missed out on a second seat there last time. Have to think there is another left seat there, SF getting it would be pretty unpalatable.
To be fair, it is true that being a MEP is a bit of a non entity role if you want to actually do anything. Brian Hayes was dragged kicking and screaming into it, he still thinks he should be leader. The aim for an incumbent like Fine Gael here is not to go backwards from the last vote, where as for Sinn FĂ©in it is to grow. The Harkin and Mings of this world are just delighted to still be there. Harkin let her DĂĄil seat go in 2007 because she couldnât go for both still and the EU elections werenât for another two years.
From The Phoenix, clear why there is such a battle. Daly out supporting Eirigi.
CLARE DALYâS EU election bid in Dublin â as well as her political and personal partner Mick Wallace TDâs outing in the South constituency â has added excitement to a relatively mundane campaign. Senator Alice Mary Higginsâs candidacy grabbed the enthusiastic attention of the Irish Times and Sunday Independent, but Dalyâs late entry offers a more substantial threat to the established parties and candidates. And despite her radical political profile, Daly is also a media darling, even though she keeps dangerous political company and has formed several strange alliances in recent years.
Among a welter of eight left-wing candidates, three past or present Labour Party members are running in Dublin, with official candidate Alex White facing off against Higgins â once a very active Labour member â and Daly. Other, less likely, left candidates are Social Democrats councillor Gary Gannon; two Solidarity/People Before Profit candidates, Gillian Brien and Rita Harrold; and Workersâ Party councillor Ăilis Ryan.
However, Dalyâs principal rival on the left is sitting MEP, Sinn FĂ©inâs Lynn Boylan. She topped the poll in 2014 with a massive 83,264 or 23.9% of the first-preference vote, an extraordinary vote for that party.
The question is not just whether Daly will supplant Boylan, but whether both can take seats for the left in a Dublin EU constituency that has for decades elected two left MEPs. In 1979, Labour took two seats out of four and, apart from the 1984 election (when Fianna FĂĄil and Fine Gael shared the four seats), the left has always taken two seats. Significantly, the left also took two seats when the constituency became a three-seater (in 2009 and 2014).
This is important, as the fourth Dublin seat will remain in abeyance unless Brexit takes place before the EU elections or until it occurs after the elections. Neither FFâs Barry Andrews nor SFâs Boylan would be pleased if either were to be pushed into this slightly diminished MEP stature, although Daly might not care as long as she clambers into the European chamber, affording her an international role that she has been pining for in recent times.
Of course, another scenario is that Daly and Boylan cancel each other out to the benefit of the two big parties. Alternatively, Daly could benefit from a supportive media as her former Socialist Party comrade, Joe Higgins, did in 2009 when fear of Mary Lou McDonald retaining the SF European seat saw Higgins lionised in the media in the latter stages of the campaign.
At first sight, Daly presents as a formidable politician who combines radical politics with a strong work ethic and serious attention to detail. She has built up a strong female following, generally as a doughty fighter taking on âthe ladsâ in the DĂĄil and more specifically as a champion of the âRight to chooseâ or Repeal of the Eighth. Daly moved DĂĄil motions proposing an abortion referendum three times while the liberal establishment took several years to inch its way towards consensus on this politically dangerous issue.
She has also made waves with a campaign against the abandonment of neutrality and her invasion, along with Wallace, of Shannon Airport in 2014 was pure theatre. The authorities wisely ensured that the two TDs spent just a few hours in custody after refusing to pay fines on conviction of breaking Shannon Airport bye-laws, but the duo still derived much cred on the left for this escapade.
Dalyâs main issue, though, has been that of Garda reform. More than any other politician, she can claim credit for exposing Garda malpractice, especially the complaints of whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe and his subsequent treatment by senior officers.
Blunders by gardaĂ, especially the arrest, handcuffing and breathalysing of Daly in Kilmainham in 2013, helped to accelerate the process of Garda reform â although much remains to be done â while also depicting Daly as a heroine fighting the bullying gardaĂ. Daly became the main politician associated with criticism of an out-of-control Garda in speeches about abuses that rang bells among voters who would normally have little time for far-left politics.
The question is whether the political kudos derived from these issues has survived the years since and is enough to see her propelled into the EU Parliament.
Dalyâs record of protest and political activity has included many other issues and ranges from the above big ticket items to diverse issues such as anti-fracking and even attacks on the âvicious exploitationâ in the horse-racing industry. But her progress from the cult that is the Socialist Party (SP), which controls the three-strong DĂĄil group Solidarity, to that of a one-woman, political force of nature has produced an enigmatic and inscrutable politico.
Clare was a member of the Militant Tendency inside the Labour Party in the 1980s and was expelled from Labour, along with Joe Higgins and others, in 1989 for being a party within a party. Renaming themselves simply Militant, they formed the SP in 1996.
Militant Tendency comrades in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland all practiced the entryist tactic inside their respective Labour parties at the same time and in the same political manner. In Ireland, the transition from Militant Tendency to Militant Labour to the Socialist Party took place in tandem with the same process in the other countries in the same, late â90s period. This âBritish Islesâ federation has produced a bizarre fusion of Trotskyism and Unionism, with the SP condemning a border poll as âcoercion of one million Protestants into a united Irelandâ and also denouncing the Good Friday agreement (GFA) as institutionalised sectarianism.
However, Dalyâs break with the SP in 2012, after she had spent her entire adult life in that group, had little to do with politics or ideology. She had become close to Wallace, politically and personally, following their entry to the DĂĄil in 2011 and their shared membership of the Technical group, an amalgam of the hard leftâs United Left Alliance (ULA) â the Joe Higgins led SP, Richard Boyd Barrettâs PBP and Independent socialist SĂ©amus Healy â as well as softer socialists like Finian McGrath and Catherine Murphy.
It was the âsoftiesâ, along with Healy, who demanded that Wallace be ostracised following the revelations of his tax-dodging activities, while the SP remained mute given their own TD, Dalyâs alliance with Wallace. Eventually, the political embarrassment became too much for the SP and it denounced Wallace, who responded by saying SP members had never dirtied their hands with manual labour.
Daly then resigned from the SP, stating that not enough had been done to achieve the urgent task of building the ULA, an obvious criticism of political sectarianism by her own party but one that nobody had ever heard her make before. Daly stood accused of putting her personal loyalty to Wallace above her own, SP/Militant politics of some 25 years and she had to endure some unflattering taunts from DĂĄil hecklers during this period (see The Phoenix, 27/2/15).
Dalyâs energy and astute political judgment, combined with Wallaceâs talents â he is not as articulate as Daly but is equally shrewd and committed â saw Daly ride the storm. Her chosen issues, especially the Garda scandals, ensured that her campaigning association with Sgt McCabe and not Mick Wallace defined her.
But there are other questions that remain unanswered about a politician who would once have a clearly defined line on every issue on the planet.
The north and Anglo-Irish politics, hardly a trivial issue, is one of these. The SP have an Anglo-centric view of Ireland and articulate a unionist outlook dressed in socialist rhetoric, a position that Daly had no problems with for over 20 years as a party member. In 2015, The Phoenix put various questions to Daly about issues like the north, which she declined to answer. Last week we again put some political questions to the TD, this time asking what she thought of the GFA; was she in favour of a border poll; and did she regard the DUP, SF or both as responsible for the impasse in the northâs Assembly. Again Daly declined to answer, although in the past she has granted an audience to those capitalist swine at the Sunday Business Post, as that paper mentioned last month.
Daly cannot be accused of being a political gadfly like many Irish Trotskyists. But it is difficult to take seriously a DĂĄil TD whose northern policy consists solely of visits to Maghaberry Prison and the trials of dissident Republicans in the north in a quest for civil and human rights for prisoners. This vicarious attitude to the national question is underlined by Dalyâs failure to point to any statement on the northern executive, the GFA or central questions about equality and power sharing or even if she supports a united Ireland.
At the same time, Daly has shared at least three platforms at meetings of the socialist republican grouping ĂirĂgĂ â including their ard fheis last year â which split from SF in 2006 because it was not fully socialist. At one of these, Daly accused SF of trying to bury the Nama/Project Eagle scandal as it was afraid of unseating DUP leader Peter Robinson. The Phoenix also asked Daly which parts of ĂirĂgĂâs political programme she agreed or disagreed with â she and Wallace endorsed ĂirĂgĂ leader Brian Leesonâs local election campaign in Dundrum â but, again, she failed to reply.
Some weeks before she launched her own EU election campaign, Daly endorsed another Dublin candidate, WP Cllr Ăilis Ryan, whose campaign pitch is the most EU-critical platform Goldhawk has so far seen in the election. Asked if this meant that Daly had the same, strongly Eurosceptic view, Daly once again had nothing to say. The WP, incidentally, would have a view of the north that is the polar opposite of ĂirĂgĂâs ardent Republicanism.
There is method to this eclectic political strategy as Daly has no real organisation nationally or in Dublin and only a small group around her in the Dublin Fingal constituency; even there she has never had a constituency office. Dalyâs hard work as a councillor for 12 years helped her to build a popular local profile and her subsequent national exposure has made her a strong enough personality at the last two general elections. But she needs wider voting support to win a European seat and the strategy has been to campaign on myriad issues â from the local seal sanctuary to Julian Assange and Venezuela â and court support from parties and activists to the left of Labour and even SF.
Dalyâs name recognition and her brand as the most prominent Independent candidate will pull many votes. She is also guaranteed support from most media â anybody but SF or, in some cases, FF, is the mantra in most newsrooms. But Boylan, too, has a significant record on human rights, as evidenced by her lead role in the release from an Egyptian prison of Ibrahim Halawa, climate change and media monopoly. Boylanâs party backing, with hundreds of SF activists and even TDs and senators, will be hard to compete with.
Last weekend saw Dalyâs posters go up in Fingal, but not in other parts of Dublin where working-class areas were festooned with Boylan posters. Dozens of SF local election candidates canvassing for themselves and their EU candidate, Boylan, is something Daly canât match. In 2014, SFâs first-preference local election vote in Dublin was around 70,000, while Boylan polled 83,000-plus, and the correlation between the two sets of votes is clear. Boylan will not replicate that vote â a whopping 23.6% â with the party perhaps over performing in that election and she will lose votes to Daly; but how much?
The distinct possibility is that Dublin will again elect two left-wing MEPs, Boylan and Daly. With Daly standing out as a strong, Independent woman with a record of fighting on left/liberal issues and with media support, her campaign could catch fire and she may even top the poll. This would see Boylan fighting hard, but retaining her seat in third or even fourth place.
FF is weak in Dublin and Andrewsâs languid performance in public debates will not help his campaign. On the other hand, FF is spending big money and Dublin has been plastered with hundreds of his posters. FG is strong in Dublin and the party vote will bring in Fitzgerald, probably in second place, although the contrived candidacy of the SDLPâs Durkan will do her few favours. Andrews should take a seat, the only question being whether he can avoid being beaten into fourth place.
A confusing factor is the unpredictable performance of Green Party candidate Cllr Ciaran Cuffe. Can Cuffeâs mild personality turn a surge of interest in climate change into a serious campaign for an EU seat? (The Greens are the most transfer-friendly party.) Will Alice Mary erode Dalyâs support and how will transfers from the other five left candidates break down? Probably more to Daly than Boylan.
Daly will be sorely disappointed if she fails to make it to Strasbourg as both she and Wallace have told other TDs that they are weary, even bored, with domestic politics and would love to storm the European and international stage. Their trips abroad have included jaunts to the Middle East, Latin America and even the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to offer comfort to Assange. It sure beats campaigning for the Irish Seal Sanctuary in north County Dublin. And if Mick fails to take a seat in the South constituency, a successful Clare would surely put him on the payroll in her parliamentary team.
Thereâs your reason. Mick will become an assistant if she doesnât win. Ridic.
Is there even a seat here for the left or will they will in 4th place limo? Transfers obviously the deciding factor. I could see enough transfers from a Boylan or Daly spilling over to Cuffe. You would imagine White and Durkanâs votes will not find their way to Sinn FĂ©in or Daly is substantial numbers.
The jobâs a good one ok
Sure how could Tipp ever win another all Ireland* with that Craic going on?
With or without an asterix*
*asterisk
