Hustings

We'd use the word "controversial". Or "WTF". 99% of you weren't there so we'd better explain what hustings are. The candidates line up on a stage. They talk. You listen. You ask questions. You hope they answer them. There's a microphone. You go home with a better idea of who's good and who's just there to get laid.

Then again, there are ULSU hustings.

It was all supposed to kick off at 2pm. We found this out by hanging around and asking people. There might have been more people there if it had been advertised in any meaningful way. This was almost a secret hustings organised by the SU. At 2pm, they were starting to assemble the stage in the stables courtyard. Only the curious and the determined would manage to see what was going on with the candidates and the microphone as there was no advertising for the democratic process at all. It had been mentioned in An Focal but with over a thousand of the previous issue from two weeks ago still sitting inside the SU door given that people aren't reading it any more, we're not confident that all that many people had picked up the new one.

Damian Cahill is a good lad but he's not really down with the responsibility thing. The blame for the non-erection of the stage can be laid on the ents people it seems. The ones who are hired by the SU to run discos and rag weeks. Damian is the Campaigns and Services officer. This includes Services, which includes Ents. Damian opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, or at least those that bothered, and said he wouldn't apologise for the late start as it wasn't his fault. Who's keeeping an eye on Ents then?

After the long unexplained delay, things finally got going. The chair was a former SU president but it appeared that no-one explained the rules to him as there were quite a few people in the crowd wanting to add comments after the questions without actually asking questions. Was Joe Wallace not available? He's been chairing most of them since before any of us remember. And was the new guy booked at the last minute or something?

Following established protocol, and probably the rules, it kicked off with communications.

Communications

Dolphin formally said that he'd cut Pulse. Might actually be a good idea, the content could be folded into An Focal to make the paper stronger and save over ten grand a year. It's the kind of money that could go a long way towards other things that people might care a bit more about.

We were expecting the two candidates to be neck and neck on presentation or even for Ni Raghaillaigh to be ahead. Dolphin is a tech head. With very few exceptions, tech heads don't make good public speakers or know how to use a crowd. But it was Dolphin who answered questions confidently without using notes while Ni Raghaillaigh carefully read a prepared speech without looking at the crowd at all.

The contraversial bit. The current officers managed to make arses of themselves during the communications questions when the subject of An Focal being a propaganda paper cane up for discussion. Ni Raghaillaigh said it was just the way it was while Dolphin said it wasn't the way it should be. If the ping pong discussion between the two wasn't enough, president Pa O'Brien stepped up, followed by current editor Aoife Breen, and said that was the way it was and it would be so forever more. It must have touched off a nerve in them as it was totally out of order.

What we're curious about is whether this will be enough to get last year's An Focal editor off the fence and plunge down into the campaigning mire. Seamus Ryan reputedly spent an entire year battling with his fellow officers to tone down the propaganda factor in An Focal and turn it into an actual newspaper. Catering for the student voice and the dissenting voice was the thing he was most vocal about and it was probably the reason he got elected. We reckon its the return to the old non-veiled propaganda that has resulted in his not contributing to the paper at all since Aoife of the Breens took over. The trouble is that we''ve seen Ryan campaigning to a crowd of people one by one in the past and he's probably the best at it that we've ever seen, switching effortlessly between topics to hammer home a position and get multiple votes. As this was important enough to him two years ago to base his campaign around it, it might be enough to get him out in the trenches campaigning for Dolphin. The turnover of a few hundred votes that would result purely from that would be enough to tip the election Dolphin's way. It's a pity he didn't run himself, he's been around long enough to know something about everything and always been blunt enough to make any election interesting. And it would have been nice to see to see a bit of pure substance entered into some of the races.

Outcome: strong showing from Dolphin. Less strong showing from Ni Raghaillaigh. It may not matter tomorrow. We see them as being neck and neck and either of them could take home the prize. There can be only one.

Campaigns and Services

The CSO hust brought foward the three campaigners for the position and we finally got to see what some of them looked like.

Darragh Bourke promised a bigger better rag week but didn't really say how. He also promised an off-licence for the college but didn't really say how.

Fergal Dempsey promised better acts on campus but didn't say how. And the mighty craic with bring your own beer parties. He could talk to Darragh Bourke to help out with that, with the off-licence Bourke promised that Dempsey didn't.

Michelle Lawlor tried very hard not to mention the Blizzards. She wants less cars, more bus lanes and lots of free nights out for students. And that kind of thing. But she didn't really say how. She also wants vending machines in the library, which is sure to send the staff there into the heart attack zone unless it just sells bottled water.

Not all that interestingly, but slightly, Bourke was the only one to mention the big blowup cinema screen. We'd forgotten it existed. It cost about ten grand and has only been used the once as far as we can tell. It hasn't been used at all this year and we're guessing it's under somebody's bed.

The wannabe CSOs were asked to list what bands they'd secure for UL. Not much outcome there but we did find out that Lawlor can name two bands that aren't the Blizzards.

This one we're calling for Dempsey. There's no more substance there than there is for the other two but he will have enough people around to make a big noise. Bourke will finish a fading third. Lawlor could steal it if she has enough people out and about and makes a strong dive at the female vote, picking up a few fellas along the way but we think this race is over. As we've thought from the start. Dempsey will have to repair the view that even the students who care about the SU have about this job, there hasn't been much value fmor it in the past two years.

Education

Education was a tighter run, at least between Finnerty and Kerins. They both brought enough supporters with them to make a bit of noise, more than their competitors.

David James James Collison Ryan talked a lot about his experience. A quick run into the underrepresentation of international students was a stab at the floating vote of the unindoctrinated. Shame none of them knew it was on.

Not so many questions for the education candidates. It's a boring job and everyone knows it.

They were asked about how they'd reform class reps. It appears that even class reps know that it's boring so they don't go. Finnerty wants to hammer home that it's not just about the hoodies. Kerins wants training to be provided in the evenings, which we remember being done last year anyway. Thomas wants better communication. Collison Ryan wants to change the perception of class reps. Nothing of any substance there then.

The most interesting question of the entire affair came from habitual troublemaker and last year's editor Seamus Ryan. Even officially staying out of the election completely by the looks of things, he's been as much a feature in the background as any of the runners, which is why he's getting a second mention here, especially given that we know he was asked to be campaign manager for more than one of the candidates and has probably had a cuppa with more than half of them in the past week. Being a bit older than the kids currently running the show, he's got a habit of asking questions that throw people and this one certainly did. The fees plebiscite. Not all that interested in what the candidates were thinking was their first option, as students are hardly going to vote for fees when they can vote for no fees, the question was what their second option was. After the shock of being asked a pointed question faded, the candidates all managed to give a different answer to the question. Kerins favours graduate loans. Thomas wants the current situation with means testing. Collison Ryan finished with no nay never to fees but likes graduate taxes as a fallback. Finnerty wants increased general taxation. The most resolute answer came from Finnerty but as she answered last she had an extra minute or two to think of one.

This is a tough one to call. We reckon it's a competition between the two women as Collison Ryan doesn't appear to have the manpower to win the election. Neither does Thomas. It's for Kerins or Finnerty to win and while Kerins may have a slight edge, either candidate could take it depending on transfers and how many people they have at their call tomorrow.

President

The presidential debate was interesting, if only because we all finally knew that Mark Conway is not a 60-year old guy. He looks about 20 and likes to wear hats. He did mention that he knows that some people think he's taking the piss, which makes him very in touch with what students are thinking right now. He also wants an off-licence in UL and wants to bring back the buzz. We wouldn't call him a stoner but he dresses and acts like one. Probably a nice guy though, it's good to see an outsider running. He insisted on telling us he was an outsider though, flinging around the word clique more than Dempsey did in his manifesto. After the Communications debate silliness with the current guys, he's probably got a point. We liked him. Not that we'd vote for him or anything.

Ruan Dillon Mcloughlin wants to see a fulltime person hired to deal with lecturer complaints. We know that's not going to happen any time soon if ever but it's something new, even if it just follows the "hire new person to do something you see as a problem" line. He didn't deal with his manifesto content at all, saying he wanted to talk about new things. We're hoping he was involved in the writing of his manifesto but even if he wasn't, he can get around to reading it over the weekend. He came across a lot better than the other two candidates. That's typical of the presidential race, people vote for the person they like the best. Perhaps he wrote his own manifesto, who knows.

Eamon Gardiner took a strong law and order and society falling apart line on pretty much everything. While he wants more buses and an integrated transport policy, we were much more interested in his view that there will be beatings if he doesn't get elected. He fielded a question that had been blatantly planted to knock him back on what candidates have put aside for this week rather well. It looks silly when campaign managers who are obviously running at some point in the future make total tits of themselves so perhaps the joke was on one Paddy Rockett, current community officer, future election candidate and Dempsey campaign manager, who could have been high at the time. It was rather obvious. And cliquey. Mark Conway could have made hay on it if there was anyone there to listen.

The Dillon McLoughlin party machine is likely to steam home on this one. Whether or not he's a secret member of Fianna Fail, he'll have some extra help from the party when the polls open as he's backed by one of their mein UL men (Daly). He may not even need the help with his kayak cohort out in the trenches. Conway will trail at the bottom of the poll, Gardiner will do respectably but we can't see him coming close to stealing it.

The WTF bit. For some reason there was a question towards the end from Damian Cahill. Aware that the entire thing had started over half an hour late and probably aware thst students have better thing to be doing with their time like studying, he asked the candidates why they thought there was such a small number of students at the hustings. Dillon McLoughlin said it was because students weren't properly told it was on. Gardiner said the same thing. Conway mentioned the clique. Full marks to all three. The two things we came away with were a sense of wonder about that the chair of the Electoral and Referenda board was doing asking questions of candidates in the first place and why the Campaigns and Services officer was still looking for pointers on how to get students to an event nine months into his term of office. Easy answer. Tell people that it's on. Almost nobody knew.

What we liked about the whole debacle was that there were lots of questions asked. Most of them were plants. But unusually, not all of them were plants. And it was far too cold to have such an event outside, which should have caused a move in venue as the stage hadn't been set up by 2pm. The crowd would have moved, most of them were campaigners. But they stayed, even if it was just to make noise and pretend that their chosen candidate had more friends than could be counted.

Based on what we see in the final day of campaigning, our thoughts may change a bit but we are readiy to make our final predictions