Maman Poulet

Blogging Councillors

Something is definitely happening in Labour Party HQ regarding candidate blogging, we suddenly have a rash of blogging councillors. These are councillors with blogspot blogs too - written themselves (or at least humans rather than robots!) I previously mentioned Dominic Hannigan's blog which continues to entertain including his version of how he missed the vote for the Cathaoirleach of the council.

“Don’t be late, we could be voting in ten minutes” said Jimmy, who I had agreed to support for Cathaoirleach.“I won’t be late!” I responded.

Well, I fu***d up and got caught with a planner for 15 minutes. By the time I returned I entered the chamber and Jimmy was in the Chair. He had been elected without my support.

I felt very embarrassed, because I know how this could be made to look. I had driven to Navan specifically to vote for him and I had missed it. (If I wanted to avoid it I could have been otherwise engaged on a business meeting in London or New York). There was nothing to do but apologise profusely to Jimmy, and the Chamber for missing the vote.In my two years as a councillor this was the biggest mistake I made, and if I could have re-lived the day I would have made sure I didn’t leave the chamber at the wrong time.

Added to my bloglines recently are the blogs of Eric Byrne, Seamus Ryan, Sean O hArgain and Aodhan O'Riordan. I can hear Sean's accent as I read his blog, I first met him in 1990 on the Mary Robinson campaign.

Any new FF, FG, PD or SF blogs out there? Written by the councillors or candidates themselves and not full of press releases or capital letters?

posted by Maman Poulet @ 7/21/2006 11:45:00 p.m.