Best of the Election?

Savour the Not-Knowing Moments!

Intro:

Ireland is currently in this beautiful no man’s land moment where we still have a few hours of hope ahead of the General Election results. Let’s enjoy this short window!

“People on the doors were polite” - was the commentary in the final few hours of the nationwide canvass. It’s so Irish. The people will smile and nod and take the brochures and say thank you, maybe even good luck!

But nobody knows the true thoughts behind the wry smiles and pleasantries.

This is what ruffles the feathers of the powers that be; they like to think people will do what they’re told but they are not entirely sure. That uncertainty, the not knowing, makes them nervous.

Let’s treasure this short window of not knowing. It’s early Saturday morning, count centers around the country are rumbling into action and we can speculate ‘til the cows come home but we have no idea really, what today might bring.

These are the in-between moments - there is still hope and a little mischief and a sense of achievement in all the work done and the conversations that flowed as a result.

I love that Fine Gael got so desperate in the end that someone on their PR team thought it was a good idea to have party leader Simon Harris pour a cup of tea for an elderly lady promising her everything under the sun in a final promotion video.

Incredible!

The older person’s guarantee. Lovely.

Gas.

So while we are here in the in-between phase I want to share with you my pick for Best of the Election

And the award goes to: Brandon Begley, a native Irish speaker from west Kerry who put himself forward as a candidate for the Irish Freedom Party. Brandon is the son of the legendary musician Brendan Begley (a brother of Seamus RIP), who took on the local authority in a row over planning permission to build a home for himself at the foot of Mount Brandon in Co Kerry and he won.

His son Brandon Begley has inherited a good chunk of the ancestral rebel spirit and pledged to build a house without planning if elected. But it’s how he deals with the issue of Transgender Sportmanship in quintessential Kerry style that really made me laugh.

Introducing the topic, Begley explains that he’s in the process of applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate, because you know, he can and the presentation moves from there through controversial territory

“Men are better than women! (at sport)”

He then navigates beautifully into a discussion that you might hear in a bar somewhere back west of Dingle long past the hour of closing. What age does the men's team become something the women might be able to beat, 76, 78?

There’s a lovely spark in the ‘protest movement’ that is recognising the value of the Irish language and I think Begley offers the essence of it here: to speak the language is a wonderful thing obviously, but to think as Gaeilge is a different thing altogether…

Behold: my Best of the Election selection:

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