Maureen O’Sullivan

Eamon Gilmore press scrum

Paschal Donohue

Just a couple of weeks ago, I trailed the Labour canvas in Dublin South and Dublin Central. Between the walkabouts, I got some time to interview Eamon Gilmore. Audio is a bit spotty. Questions include public service reform, reaction to the Ryan report and his thoughts on Libertas and tomorrow’s elections.

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Last Saturday afternoon, I trailed the Labour Party and more particularly Eamon Gilmore as they canvassed for the Dublin South and Dublin Central byelections.

The day begins at Dundrum Town Centre with Alex White. Alex arrives all-polished and suited. Hair coiffured just right. The canvas team have jumped into their red wind-breakers. “He’s on his way.” Tension is palpable. “Five minutes.” A flurry of activity. Then Gilmore stamps over. Quick hellos are said. White and Gilmore steal a minute to chat. Then a suited Springsteen speaker fires up and walks outside the fountained Pembroke enterence. Game on.

The Labour team form a red gauntlet. It’s all hands and hello and action. Leaflets are passed out like Zimbabwean dollars. The reactions of shoppers ranged from polite indifference, to soft hellos and an out-an-out pensioner who held blue-knuckled to her Fine Gael dogma.

The message is loud and clear, though. People travel to stroll around Dundrum Town Centre. Locals don’t necessarily shop there on a Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon is both a boon and a curse for canvassing. It’s that moment when so the party faithful have time to canvas, and when their quarry is invariably away from home and certainly not shopping.

I also meet an Australian Labour Party member who’s over to see how it’s done in Ireland. It seems like a long way to travel to stand outside shopping centres and give out leaflets for two weeks, but he’s interested in how the elections are carried out here and eager for international links to grow between the parties.

I’m told that the next stop is Rathfarnham Shopping Centre and much more like Alex’s backyard. The canvas blast is done. Off to the Gilmore cars. Ford MPVs with massive Gilmore heads affectionately named ‘Gilforce 1′ and ‘Gilforce 2′. White jumps into the lead car. I’m in ‘Gilforce 2′  with the canvas faithful for this leg of the journey. We’ve run out of energy drinks, but the Doctor’s Surgeryesque lollipops are broken out. It’s all excited, sugary chatter.

We get to the Rathfarnham strip mall. The Labour wind-break team form a narrow channel outside Tesco.  They are quickly joined by Cllr Paddy Cosgrave. The reception here seems a little more open. Or perhaps it’s the fact that shoppers are willing to stop a little more as the price for a quick escape with slabs of beer ready for the Leinster match. White seems more relaxed here as well. His steps between pressing the flesh are positively Baryshnikov.  He’s eager to get people he meets to say hello to Gilmore as well.

A woman charges past with her trolley. An intercept is made. The tale goes that she told her eighteen-year old son to vote Labour or he was out of the house. Some laughter ensues. Those thirty minutes have blurred past. At the end of it all, despite the warmer reaction in Rathfarnham, there’s an overriding feeling is of quiet disappointment. Miriam put it much better and ever so sweetly.

Time to decamp to the Northside. This time a seat in ‘Gilforce 1′ is mine. And here they have wine gums.

On the way to the Cabra, I get some time to interview Eamon Gilmore (to follow). He’s in a buoyant mood and quickly interchanges into auto mode on questions. Plans are hectic. There are masses to be at tomorrow and town in the afternoon. Interestingly, Gilmore carries a Blackberry.

We meet the Bacik team at the tiny Maple Centre in Cabra. Local candidate Aine Clancy is here too. This time is it’s door-to-door in Ahern heartland. There’s traces of the Costello machine amongst the canvassers here, through. The canvas team fan out like ants. Knocking on doors. Anyone home? And not to forget the Ma and Pa chemist on the corner. One King Charles owner is delighted to see Ivana. Bacik quickly fires up conversation.  The lady has been an Ivana fan for years and is happy to see her running. Two minute chat and then away. The pace is frenetic.

I grab a few minutes with Ivana as we trot from door-to-door. She’s emphatic that jobs are the key issue of the election. She reflects on meeting a couple who had both lost their jobs. “What are they going to do now?” The divide in North vs. Southside issues is quite pointed. Leafy even-numbered subarbs haven’t been as starkly affected as those on the Northside. It’s all jobs, jobs, jobs.

We chat about the online space. She rattles off her interest in technology. Her siblings are in IT. She’s fast to point out how she spoke in the Seanad on Open Source. She’s strong on broadband too. “Ivana, come ‘ere!” The  slivers of chat are over much too quick.  Much too fast to dig into the meat of her policies.

As much as the team remains upbeat, the contest will be close. In a constituency where the Gregory and Ahern shadows are cast for very different reasons, Labour will have a tough time in nabbing the byelection seat. It’s all but said. More rapid walking from door-to-door. Another thirty minutes flashes by and it’s almost 5pm.

I depart from the Labour team at Cumiskey’s near Blackhorse Avenue. It’s almost match time, and the non-stop banter and handshakes has undoubtedly worked up a thirst. I leave them to the rugby and Leinster’s victory, who knows what celebrations will break out on that first weekend of June.