Sinn Féin in the lead! FF & FG surprised?! What do you think? Exciting or scary times?!

[Housiemousie]

I have always been a Fine Gael voter. I'm from a long line of FG voters, many active in the party, who would be horrified by how much I want Mary Lou to succeed.

I really want to like Leo. He looks the part but he's not speaking to me. I am self employed in rural Ireland and neither FF or FG have sounded like they know I or any of my family or friends exist in the 20 years I have lived here (having worked abroad for a decade post uni). I even have a soft spot for Micheál Martin (who can resist a Cork accent) But I am not a farmer so he's not representing me either.

So why is Mary Lou so appealing? I couldn't even listen to Gerry Adams. Is it the fact that because she's not northern I'm not thinking IRA? Or because we really have moved past that , or is it that we are so, so sick of the entrenched fat cats of FF and FG that anything (well, almost, you can keep Aontu) will be better?

I'd love to hear I'm not alone in finding this upcoming election more exciting than previous ones.

Meaning his father isnt Irish I presumed. But his mother is.

What fucking eejits suggested to him that it might be a good idea to commemorate the RIC and the Black & Tans? All Irish too the gobshites!! It just showed a complete and utter disconnect from ordinary Joe and Jolene. We have a lot to worry about, but surely commemorating the fucking plague on our history that was the Black & Tans shouldn't be added to our plate of woes! FFS. What were they thinking????

Is that because Leo comes from an Indian background? Cos he sounds pretty Irish to me and speaks the language far better than anyone I know that was born to two Irish parents. He is Irish so it is his history.

I wondered what that meant too.

Our being Irish history for generations. His being a first generation Irish man, with none of our baggage or nonsense, or gripes, or memories in his memory. He just doesn't understand the RIC, the Black & Tans. None of it. That became starkly evident when he refused to back down. And that my friends (and Leo - I'm available for hire if your want me) is when people looked elsewhere to place their votes.

Ridicule me if you like but Come out ye black and tans topped the iTunes charts in Ireland and England I believe!

Now if that wasn't people expressing an opinion I don't know what is.

Oh please calm down. There is more than one lens through which history can be viewed. The point is that we have got to a day where which side your ancestors fought on/prayed on matters very little. It is smart not to value that.

It would be smart to value that I mean.

And what does that show? That you are right about.... what precisely!?
I don'y get what point you are making.

I don't think SF will do much for self-employed.. like others I cannot separate them from their history. However I do admire ML and I'm glad to see a woman at the helm.

There is no way that if I moved to Spain today and had a child in Spain tomorrow, that that child would be as understanding of Spanish culture as a native would. It's just the same. He didn't grow up with our history passed down from great-grandparents down to grandparents, then to parents and then to you. He just couldn't know.
So either he was very ill advised or he stubbornly proceeded.

Yes but there is only one understaning that is allowed to be opely vocalised.

My great great great grandparents Irish but our stories weren't allowed. We understand a lot but it is not the account that was ever sought out or believed, or welcomed even now.
Things are best left in the past. A song that throws oil on divisive tensions from 100 years ago is so utterly moronic. Try not to be a part of that.

Yes he was badly advised though. Everybody knew that

Leo's mother is Irish born of Irish descent, as he is himself. If he doesn't understand things it's his own personal failing, and has fuck all to do with where his father was born.

I'm not in Ireland. I'm observing from the sidelines!

I don't know anyone who was in favour of commemorating the RIC and the Black and Tans, in fact it caused outrage and anti FG sentiment.

Exactly

Eh Leo's mother is Irish. So I doubt he doesn't know "our history".
Next you'll say "but his father isn't Irish" so he's only getting this perspective from his mother's side.

Then I'll ask you whether a child with a single Irish parent is less Irish?

Catch yourself on!

Our being Irish history for generations. His being a first generation Irish man, with none of our baggage or nonsense, or gripes, or memories in his memory. He just doesn't understand the RIC, the Black & Tans. None of it.

That's what I thought you meant. But he's not a 'first generation Irish man' -- he was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and a non-Irish father who met in England, and grew up Catholic, entirely in Ireland, like lots of us.

@NothingWrong, are you honestly suggesting that having a non-Irish father magically removes some kind of innate ability to understand Irish history, the Black and Tans etc?

Leo's mother is from a Fianna Fáil family in Dungarvan. I'm pretty sure he knows his history.

Apart from his ascendency, there is the small matter that he comes from a very middle class background. Parents 2 doctors, him a doctor, his partner a doctor. Let's just say you wouldn't see him down the local having a pint of a Monday evening.

x-posted with @Amara123.

I'm not one to leap down people's throats with accusations of racism, but it's hard to know how else to interpret @NothingWrong's version of Leo Varadkar.

Apart from his ascendency, there is the small matter that he comes from a very middle class background. Parents 2 doctors, him a doctor, his partner a doctor. Let's just say you wouldn't see him down the local having a pint of a Monday evening.

Ascendancy?? And now middle-class Irish people don't know their Irish history, either? Who do you think is properly cognizant of Irish history, so?

Next you'll be telling me his grandfather was Michael Collins.

I'm just telling it how it's viewed on the street boys.