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Post by Young Ireland on Feb 7, 2016 18:47:52 GMT
Meanwhile, in Cork South West, Theresa Heaney is running for the Catholic Democrats. While she is unlikely to be elected, her relatively strong performance in 2014's European elections and the fact that she has ran here in the past and polled reasonably well compared to some other Catholic candidates over the last 20 years. However, I would question their strategy this time round on a number of grounds:
1) West Cork is not exactly fertile ground for a Catholic candidate, even compared to the other Cork constituencies. There is a large Protestant minority there, as well as a growing population of New Agers. Indeed, in some areas, Catholics (practising or otherwise) are actually a minority. An expressly Catholic candidate will not attract any support from these quarters.
2) If I was Theresa Heaney, I would run in Cork South Central instead, and try to get the support of those who would have voted for Kathy Sinnott. Although Sinnott has not been politically active for some time, she still has her base, and Heaney could do worse than jump on the bandwagon and build on that.
3) EDITED: As Nora Bennis is now running in Limerick City, my third point is no longer relevant.
Anyway, it seems that I can't edit the poll, so will I start over and include the Catholic Democrats, or will I leave it as it is?
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Post by Young Ireland on Feb 9, 2016 20:47:16 GMT
As you might have gathered from the edit to my last post, Nora Bennis is now running in Limerick City.
Meanwhile, Kerry now has a second pro-life candidate: Mary Fitzgibbon, who ran in the last election is running again this time round.
Anyone willing to specualate on the probability of Ronan Mullen running in Galway-Roscommon?
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 12, 2016 20:37:44 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 19, 2016 23:34:48 GMT
The new issue of CATHOLIC VOICE also has a list of acceptable candidates - pitifully few, but certainly worth checking out. Incidentally, it seems that although the Greens have a free vote policy, the only one of their candidates to have taken a clear pro-life stance is Sinead Moore in Laois.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 22, 2016 22:44:38 GMT
A belated response to Young Ireland: I don't think it would have been a good idea for Therese Heaney to transfer to Cork South Central to pick up Kathy Sinnott's old vote, for the following reasons: (1) Irish politics is very localised; an outsider couldn't automatically count on picking up local votes. (2) Not all of Kathy Sinnott's vote was pro-life/pro-family; some of it will have derived from her work for disability rights. (In the same way the late Sean Dublin Bay Loftus used to get some votes from lefties and greens who shared his environmentalism but not his pro-life/Christian Democrat views.) That vote certainly would not have gone to Heaney. (3)Realistically, Heaney is not going to win whatever constituency she runs in, so her aim should be to get the best vote she can and that is likeliest where she is known.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 22, 2016 23:01:55 GMT
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Post by maolsheachlann on Feb 23, 2016 9:12:55 GMT
I am lucky to have a prolife candidate in Dublin North West, or at least, a candidate who is making prolife noises when asked (though it certainly doesn't feature prominently on any of his literature). It's councillor Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fail. I never voted Fianna Fail in my life before. There doesn't seem to be a Christian Solidarity Party candidate round my way. Our Labour candidate John Lyons seems to be one of the most eagerly 'progressive' of their TD's (to give him his due he replied to my email at the time of the Protection of Human Life Bill, and was very clear about his pro-choice views).
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Post by maolsheachlann on Feb 23, 2016 12:38:49 GMT
Interesting passage from Eilis O'Hanlon in an Irish Independent 'funny' column:Too much choice can be confusing. So for those who haven't yet made up their minds what to do come Friday, here's a handy cut out and keep guide to 'Which Way To Vote In The 2016 Election'.
If 'recovery' is your new favourite word, vote Fine Gael.
If you've been banging the drum about a referendum on the 8th Amendment and don't want to be exposed as a total hypocrite by not supporting the one party which can actually deliver it, vote Labour.
If you want to punish the Government but are worried at handing power to an unstable rag bag of Trotskyists and anarchists, vote Fianna Fail.
If you want Ireland to be like Greece, vote Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit. If, on the other hand, you want it to be like West Belfast, vote Sinn Fein - and do try to remember to do it early and often. It's traditional.
If you're a wee bit nostalgic for the PDs, vote Renua. If you're not quite sure of the difference between Stephen Donnelly's Social Democrats and Shane Ross's Independent Alliance, join the club.
Now, just toss a coin and vote for whichever one comes up heads.
That's what most of the parties' candidates did when deciding which to join.
If you think polar bears are more important than jobs in rural Ireland, vote Green.
If you didn't realise that Killinaskully was meant to be a comedy, vote for one of the Healy Raes. It really, Healy doesn't matter which one.
And if you want to be doing all this again in another nine months' time because no one has managed to put together a working majority in the 32nd Dail, simply vote for whichever Independent takes your fancy on the day, then sit back and enjoy the fun of the fair.It seems like the conservative Catholic vote, or even the socially conservative vote, is not even on the radar of the commentariat, and it's hard to blame them.
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Post by pugio on Feb 24, 2016 10:52:42 GMT
I think we have to be realistic, guys. We should do what we can, and I intend to, but abortion is most likely going to be legalised here within the next 5-10 years. There's no good reason to expect that a small country like Ireland, highly globalised and culturally dominated by Anglo-America, will miraculously buck the trend of every other nation in the Western world.
I think Labour are making noise about the 8th amendment in an attempt to rally liberal middle-class support as working-class voters are falling away from them in droves. (They know serious pro-lifers won't vote for them anyway.) The recent Irish Times poll confirms that support for legalising abortion is highest amongst C1 and C2 voters, while it is lowest amongst the rich and the poor. Overall, a majority is in favour.
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Post by Young Ireland on Feb 24, 2016 20:32:47 GMT
A belated response to Young Ireland: I don't think it would have been a good idea for Therese Heaney to transfer to Cork South Central to pick up Kathy Sinnott's old vote, for the following reasons: (1) Irish politics is very localised; an outsider couldn't automatically count on picking up local votes. True, but I think that is less of a factor when it comes to parties: I think that Cork-South Central might be more fertile ground than CSW might be.(2) Not all of Kathy Sinnott's vote was pro-life/pro-family; some of it will have derived from her work for disability rights. (In the same way the late Sean Dublin Bay Loftus used to get some votes from lefties and greens who shared his environmentalism but not his pro-life/Christian Democrat views.) That vote certainly would not have gone to Heaney. I agree, but even taking into account that and the passage of time, Kathy Sinnott would still have a lot of connections in that constituency. Even if Heaney tapped into only half of these, it would go some way towards saving a deposit.(3)Realistically, Heaney is not going to win whatever constituency she runs in, so her aim should be to get the best vote she can and that is likeliest where she is known. I accept that her election is unlikely, but I think that running in a constituency with a large number of non-Catholics under a Catholic banner is going to damage any chance she might have. Given that an exceptionally poor vote will almost certainly be spun as a rejection of Catholicism, I personally think that we can do better.
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Post by Young Ireland on Feb 24, 2016 20:40:36 GMT
I think we have to be realistic, guys. We should do what we can, and I intend to, but abortion is most likely going to be legalised here within the next 5-10 years. There's no good reason to expect that a small country like Ireland, highly globalised and culturally dominated by Anglo-America, will miraculously buck the trend of every other nation in the Western world. I think Labour are making noise about the 8th amendment in an attempt to rally liberal middle-class support as working-class voters are falling away from them in droves. (They know serious pro-lifers won't vote for them anyway.) The recent Irish Times poll confirms that support for legalising abortion is highest amongst C1 and C2 voters, while it is lowest amongst the rich and the poor. Overall, a majority is in favour. Pugio, I think that the 8th Amendment can be saved if we (the pro-life movement) put our minds to it. It'll be tough certainly, but it can be done. If you look at the US, the tide is starting to turn there, so it can be done. This isn't to make light of the task that lies ahead of us, we need to make sure that we are not overwhelmed by the task ahead, especially since we are assured victory by God in the end, even if we won't always win every battle.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 25, 2016 18:30:57 GMT
To be honest, I think Pugio has it right. One feature in looking at the Pro-Life candidates' list (which isn't complete by any means; for example, Cllr McKee the Renua candidate in Carlow-Kilkenny, has come out for repealing the 8th Amendment but this wasn't stated on the website last time I looked, presumably because he hasn't replied to their specific queries) is that there is no party with a pro-life policy; both FF and Renua are officially neutral and there is a surprising number of anti-8th Amendment FF candidates. On the other hand, several parties, especially Labour, are officially pro-choice (and the fact that they think they stand to gain by this is itself an ominous sign of changing times). This coupled with the ongoing media blitz (the media has power to set the terms of debate, and politicians are reluctant to antagonise the media, especially the RTE-IRISH TIMES axis) makes it likely that sooner or later we will see pro-choice legislation pushed through. (Incidentally, did you see how the IRISH TIMES was busy muddying the waters earlier this week by asking voters if they would like to see the 8th Amendment repealed for various hard cases and then touting the results as support for repeal tout court, which of course would open the way for much wider abortion?) The long-term task has to be to preserve a pro-life subculture, which I fear will have to be to a considerable extent underground. The pro-choicers are rapidly dominating civil society groups, the media and the education system; there are an increasing number of people out there who think pro-lifers are on the same moral level as racists. We need to understand this and work together if we are going to keep some sort of flame alive.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2016 23:14:24 GMT
Do you have to rank everyone on the sheet? Like, if there's only a few people you'd actually care to vote for, can you just not give any of the other people preferences? Most of the people in my area seem to be pro-abortion, among other things.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Feb 26, 2016 9:29:57 GMT
No, you can just give somebody your number one preference and write nothing else on the sheet. You can assign a preference to every candidate on the sheet, just one, or anything in between. But transfers are crucial to our electoral system and I think you have more likelihood of influencing the vote if you put more preferences-- though I admit I only listed three this morning. The FF candidate first because he is prolife, the Direct Democracy candidate second because they are endearing no-hopers, and the FG candidate third in the desperate hope of keeping Labour or Sinn Fein out.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Feb 26, 2016 11:50:06 GMT
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