Election 2024 . Not that one, though the Trump victory is sure to influence some of what we are threatened and promised. presumably we'll have a date soon.

[DeanElderberry]

Any wise thoughts?

The comedian Bernard Casey had quite a funny video up yesterday about Hutch when he goes into the Dail.
www.tiktok.com/@bernardcaseycomedy/video/7443086316197252384
It will be interesting to see if he is called far right.

I am not happy about seeing a man with Hutch's history elected (if he is) and am sceptical of his being the next Gregory or O'Sullivan, but am also unhappy with the way all the parties have treated people in the last decade. Words from more than 200 years ago have been muttering in my ear.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back

— Anonymous, "The Goose and the Common"

It will be interesting to see if he is called far right.

Nobody has been calling him far right. He's not in the "wide-open borders, keep Ireland Irish, it's an ethnocide" category

www.breakingnews.ie/general-election-2024/gerry-hutch-tells-immigrants-to-bring-your-toolbox-and-bring-your-skills-1696621.html

I have posted numerous times D1 is crying out for a Tony Gregory. No one has stepped up since he is gone.

Zero time for Maureen O'Sullivan, all talk but zero action on the ground when it actually counts.

She rode TG coattails to get elected first time and sat cushy since.

Tony Gregory used his voice got out and marched supported the community.

I have never seen O'Sullivan out fighting for the community. Turns up for photo ops but scurries away.

I am watching, researching, I do not make decisions without doing research and at this current moment in time the only person on the ballot paper who has shown his commitment to D1 is Gerry Hutch.

I am writing specifically about D1, the area called 'scumbags' 12 months ago. That told this area exactly the contempt which government hold this community in.

What do people expect? Are we lesser human and to continue to be grateful for crumbs? That is how a lot of people feel.

Calling us names isn't going to change that, slagging us off will only make us make the problems in the area worse.

It needs a honest conversation and open minds in government to try to make a start.

The generation starting primary school are the kids to start with but there is zero will on the part of governments plural.

And sadly this government will be more of the same.

To be fair to O'Sullivan she has not been a TD for nearly 5 years. None of the parties took advantage of her standing down to find a candidate able to be visible and recognisable and to work to represent a community that feels excluded. I'm still not happy with people thinking the best they can do is a gangster, but it's an indictment of the standing parties.

It's an odd constituency, part of my roots are in the D7 end, and I can see why many people there, particularly after recent gentrification, know how to work the system, and in turn appeal more to the politicians. But just as rural parties need candidates from each area, so do the urban ones. Dublin 8 has massive problems too. Even if they ever get people to 'live over the shop', they're going to need schools and childcare and playing fields and all those things that haven't been planned for.

Also, Gerry Hutch was charged and went to court and the Special Criminal Court found him not guilty based on the evidence.

Now if citizens don't believe the judges and SPC are fit for purpose that is something they need to campaign to change but 3 judges weighed up the evidence and found him not guilty.

He is entitled to run in the election and the D1 community are entitled to vote for him.

As I said we are lot lesser human, because of we live.

As I have posted numerous times, no one else gives a dam about North inner city.

That is not going to change with the current options

What do you suggest?

There is a vacuum and optically GH is filling it.

It is what it is and it is directly as a result of decades of government policies.

A post here called Aontu far right and they are moderate enough on immigration so I don't know if that is the criteria.
@DublinFemale Do you think he will be in the same mould as Gregory? I will admit I have been watching from afar thinking those voting for him were giving the middle finger to the political parties,which I presume is part of it.
But your posts have really pointed out the despair of that area. It was too easily dismissed during the riots last year as just scumbags looking for trouble. I thought MLM looked visibly shaken last year by the anger of the locals. She really looked like she had lost touch with the area.

You're possibly better off with doing close analysis of the Development Plan and lobbying the Council wrt the changes that need to be made in that, and getting your TDs to support you on the specific issues. How long does the Plan have to run?

MLM probably thinks the 'nice' people in D7 are the ones who matter, and that since D1 has been successfully neglected for decades why try to fix anything.

DublinFemale, would you consider going into local (or even National) politics yourself?

I remember a few years back there was a video of her on RTE shopping in the supermarket. She was quite annoyed that they left in the part where she was buying prawns. I think it didn't fit in to the image she was trying to cultivate.

I wonder would she understand why I used to appreciate the independent supermarket in D7 that used to sell me one egg it that was all I could afford?

There has been plans after plans for this area to upgrade and it rolls in with talk for talk for 6-7 years and then disappears.

An example O'Devaney gardens D7 has been talked about a massive overhaul for over 15yrs. It finally started this year.

It simply does not happen as there is no one in the Dáil asking about the progress.

Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station was closed down for renervation (badly needed, building in dire straits) since mid 2000's it was only after the feud in 2016 did anything start. It was started in 2020, stopped due to Covid and finally opened in 2022, HmE and MM were there to get the picture taken.

They neglected to mention it is an office with a front desk for Croke Park permits, passport stamp. It opens at 8am and closes at 9pm and no one I mean no one leaves that building except to collect and pay the Just Eats or Deliveroo delivery.

I am watching this in real time.

Something has to change.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, it isn't just an Irish thing.

The worst crime is poverty.

If you (or your community) are judged to have committed that, you will be punished relentlessly. It's shameful.

Was MLM ever in touch with the area? MLM grew up in a very different environment than D1. She went to a private school. She learned off a few sound bites. People aren’t stupid & are fed up with the rhetoric

I'd vote for anyone who committed to closing private schools. They do huge damage to society. No-one dares to touch them.

I wondered too would @DublinFemale consider going into politics.

@Onehorsetown

Hell no, no way is he TG but it feels like there is no one else. That is a problem which is continually ignored.

And I feel if he can bring hope and/or improve things at all for D1 then let him try. That is the feeling in the community

We have no one else. If governments do not want situations like this to occur in other seriously neglected areas they need to wake up.

This will happen again, GH has shown it can be done.

I can hear and read, I am well educated to know who and what he is.

After saying all of that I didn't give him my No1, sit however vote for him.

I hope I have not come across as ignorant or rude to anyone, certainly not my intention (I trying to express the feeling within D1, I can only voice to feeling of D1 as that is where I live).

If I have been rude, I sincerely apologise.

Did vote not sit, dam autocorrect

I used to go to the butchers, greengrocers, cobbler (genius the man) in Cabra, on way home from work, liked to support small businesses.

Moved jobs and it was then out of my way.

You haven’t been rude @DublinFemale. People need to recognise the right to be offended

If I have been rude, I sincerely apologise.

Not rude. Intelligent, articulate, passionate, informed, challenging.

That is why I wondered whether you'd consider politics yourself.

One thing we as a community managed to change.

We campaigned to get the rules changed for local Drug Clinic (yeah I know, possibly so far removed from many poster lives) that participants had to have lived locally with proof, (rent allowance, utility bill, social welfare) for a minimum of continuous 6 months.

It was a huge problem that the addicts were being sent into the clinic to keep up appearances in their areas.

This mattered because it is cannot accommodate infinite numbers and locals were being pushed.

That took the might of TG, Malachy Steenson and a few other local hard hitters with influence.

Small in scheme of things but was a major issue at the time.

I am going to look into the Development Plan deeper and try to make my voice heard.

🎯