Alexia Blogs

What a ride! Who could have foreseen the political ramifications caused by the collapse of the PD vote? I certainly wouldn?t have predicted that McDowell would lose his Dail seat and in doing so, his leadership of the PDs. I guess I should have had an inkling when I saw Michael McDowell and his wife, Niamh, canvassing at Beechwood Luas stop last week. It seemed like a cry for help.In truth, us Irish voters are indeed a fickle bunch. McDowell is a prime example of this. We castigate politicians with strong convictions, tarring them as radical, pig-headed and out-of-touch with the electorate. In the same breath we complain that the main parties inhabit the centre and are virtually indistinguishable. If I had a Euro for the number of times I heard my friends and colleagues bemoan. Well, what’s the difference in voting for any of them, it’s always the same. We just can’t have it both ways.

While I didn?t agree with many of McDowell’s policies or the negative campaigning, Nanny-state stance of the PDs in the last election, McDowell has offered us some of the most colourful political moments. Who will forget his comparison (which was later withdrawn) of Richard Bruton and Joseph Goebbels? Or his insinuation (also withdrawn) that the supporters of the Green Party vandalised the PD HQ?

Sam Smyth, a friend of McDowell’s, had a good piece in today’s Indo discussing McDowell’s importance to the Irish political machine and how the environs of Leinster House will be poorer for his exclusion. And of course, at the other end of the spectrum - let’s not forget fellow fallen TD Joe Higgins, always entertaining, erudite and the soul of local conviction politics. He did trojan work for exploited Polish construction workers.

Personally, I hope to see McDowell back in the public eye after a well deserved break. Whether it’s on the benches or in an advisory role, he’ll undoubtedly distinguish himself by following his morale compass and bringing his own stamp of justice and authority to bear. Good luck in the future, Michael.

I kid you not, Michael McDowell and his wife were canvassing both approaches to the Beechwood Luas station this morning. I shuffled past Mrs. McDowell as she broad forward, introducing herself. Just I was buying my Luas return ticket, I spotted the watch-dog himself, resplendid in a navy suit.Sad as it sounds I was a little starstuck. It was like seeing Madonna from afar, except that he had a little more hair, was decidedly more rotund and more feminine. Like the conductor from Thomas The Tank Engine.

Personally, I think that ?he must be feeling the pain. The weekend papers have all but called the extinction of the?PDs, with?speculation that Harney is the only safe seat. O?Donnell and McDowell may have to fight for the political future. Why else would Michael prey on canvassing the?mid-morning commuter?

I really loved this movie when I caught it in the cinema early this year, it just came out on DVD and tonight I watched it. The story is a tale of survival of a young, resourceful Jewish woman in Holland during German occupation in WW2.

The plot is a little prepostorious in places with coincidences left, right and centre. Suspend your belief and leave the grey realism of modern movies at the door, because Black Book is an old-fashioned spy actioner. It’s made the way you expect from Verhoeven: tight pacing, double-backing plots and explosions.

Don’t let the subtitles scare you. Black Book has dialogue in Dutch, German, Yiddish and English. It has a 18 cert for trademark Verhoeven violence and some nudity. Sebastian Koch from the Oscar winning The Lives Of Others starts along with Dutch newcomer (and heavily tipped Bond girl to be) Carice Van Houten.

I recoil in disgust when I hear that the Irish political establishment is rolling in behind the Rock The Vote initiative. As a young, informed member of the community I resent the Nanny State message of the Rock The Vote campaign.Anyway how effective is it really? Young people rarely listen to their parents, so are they now going to listen to Rosanna Davison or Ryan Tubridy?

I will be voting on May 24th, but not because Colin Farrell tells me to, but rather I want my voice to be heard by the political establishment. People who complain about public policy that don?t vote, deserve the services they bemoan. So, I won’t tell you to vote. Rather, you should listen to your feelings of civic duty. Falling that, think of the power to influence the Irish political machine.

Am I the only one that has been finding the last couple of days of the election campaign a little strange and uneasy? I feel that the respective campaigns have had the collective air sucked out of them first by BertieGate, then Bertie’s absolution at the re-instating of the Northern power-sharing and finally by the Nurses taking their strike-action up a notch.So, what’s happened? Have we made a judgement on who to entrust Ireland Inc over the next five years? Is that why this morning’s Irish Independent poll is blaring that Fianna Fail are up 2 points. I know that the real poll is Election Day, but it must be some kind of comfort to nervous Fianna Fail insiders who sat on the side-lines when last weekend’s stories ate up press inches.

So why the upside to Fianna Fail? Is public opinion hardening against the Nurses in the wake of continuing and widening Industrial action? Have the poll participants turned against Bertie’s media critics and now want to lend their support and their protest vote to FF? I guess the Teflon Taoiseach has a little more left in his arsenal.

The PDs can’t be satisfied with the Irish Independent poll. They are down by a opoint to 2 percent and are flurting with oblivion. All this as they bravely took a stand last weekend against the BertieGate crisis. One wonders what their poll numbers would have been if they had pulled out of government last year when BertieGate blew up. Who’s to say?

Labour must be crowing at the sight of their 3 point jump. Rabbitte has always been an effective election magnet and his speeches ring a little deeper today in midst of industrial unrest and inflationary jumps. And insiders in FG must be scratching their heads wondering what else they have to trot out, especially when polling 3 points down at 28%. Collectively, though, the Rainbow is ahead of the incumbents. Election day will tell.

In the face of this week’s events, I wonder what the hot topic of this Sunday’s headlines will be. Will the hacks blub over the Northern Assembly? Or what will further analysis of Election 07 add to fascinating embroidery of the story?

Seriously, what’s up with Luas lately? I regularly commute to and from work on the Green Line and my journeys are becoming more and more fractured.What’s up with the the congestion charge. Even though I don’t buy the ticket (I get a weekly Flexi ticket), I am morally against charging a congestion charge without Veolia (or whatever they are calling themselves this week) offering extra services in exchange. So, what - we have to pay more to squeeze into carriages? What a joke! I swear, the Luas was sooo packed this morning, that there’s a distinct possibility that I’m pregnant as I write.

If he’s a boy I’ll call him Lorcan Cowper and if she’s a girl Saoirse Beechwood. Of course, I’d love to have twins - drag them onto the morning tram. Push pass the suited and leather booted. Spill apple juice and make the sprogs cry all the way to the Insanely-Expensive-Childcare-Joke-Centre Creche in D16. All the D6 mums are doing it. But then again, I’ll have to face the stigma of being a single parent. I never caught my paramour’s name. He slipped off at Kilmacud.