There is something unhealthy about the lack of a real debate on Europe within F.F. F.G and Labour. If all the mainstream parties again push for a yes in light of our rejection of last year, that can only breed cynicism and a dangerous indifference that can mutate into an anger that feeds political parties on the fringes. The BNP success in England being a case in point. This then is the danger for us all, for Europe. Do we want a Europe that keeps failing the democratic test, first in France,then Holland and then Ireland? Can we not see that those who defend it, be they Irish politicians or media commentators, or those here in p.ie, are in no position to point the fascist finger at Ganley? He is no threat to democracy, the rerun of Lisbon is.

Declan's very actions have been in defence of democracy and the will of the people whilst his detractors think they know better than the people. Who are the real fascists then? They may not wear the brown shirts and they may not goose step, but they certainly have a compliant media and a corporate state with all the social partners and civic society groups singing from the one hymn sheet, in homage to Borroso’s E.U empire to the foolish belief that this Suprastate is the Sun. The similarities to Gleichshaltung in the Germany of the late 30s greatly unsettle me, the shelling out of the nation state and the normal checks and balances whether it be by design or incidental, cannot be right, cannot be good.

Thus I found much of the debate surrounding Declan Ganley's candidacy for the Parliament daft and frustrating since he became the issue rather than the European Union itself and what it is becoming. That of course may well have been as much Declan's fault as his opponents since the man could not escape his past and his opponents could not resist using it, and they had an enthusiastic hand maiden in RTE and it’s Prime Time hyperbolic smear. Is it not sad though that we must be safe and have no colour in our pasts if we are to avoid being a target in politics? Will it ever attract an Alan Sugar? I don't think so.

Whatever flaws Declan has, (who among us hasn't?), I cannot but admire his guts in still going forward, knowing there would be more of the same and even daring to dream foolishly, (again it is easy to be wise with hindsight), that he might lead a pan European Party, utter madness, but then to paraphrase Shaw, some times the mad people have to take over, look where the reasonable ones have got us!

At least he didn't dream at the Irish tax payers expense, (except for that recheck), at least he didn't curry corporate donations with dodgy rezoning decisions, at least he wasn't part of any golden circles, and at least he had the self belief to say ‘OK if I don't get enough in donations from those who have been blessed with as much wealth as I have and who believe as I do, I'll finance my own campaign, I’ll lend to Libertas’ or words to that effect.

We who post here need to be careful. We are safe in front of our P.Cs, anonymous and smug in our own retorts and wit, in our send ups and put downs, in our ripostes to each other and our clownish catch cries that have won the drunken cheer. (Yeats)

We don't put ourselves out there, we don't leave ourselves open to ridicule, we don't open our pasts to scrutiny. We are secure knowing we can mock and take cheap Ian dohertyesqe jibes at Ganley, or Kenny or Cowan, we can be both smart and mean spirited. We can be like Mary Carr in the Daily Mail and fawn over Obama and compare Cowan to a sack of potatoes. But bad and all as Carr and Doherty are, we are worse since they do it in their own names, out in the open, they even depend on their living for it. We don't and we remain anonymous.

I am disappointed for Irish politics that Ganley didn't make it, because once again, being radical, being a personality, being flawed, is unacceptable. We are all becoming Pharisees with a hardness of heart and a politically correct morality that makes Fintan O Toole look like St Augustine in his days of wild excess.

Anyone who does not fit the safe technocratic and bland mode, anyone who doesn’t do the political consensus speak, anyone who dares say the emperor has no clothes, who shows us that really in their nakedness, their essence, the main parties are are all the same, will be lynched.

‘Safe’, though won’t rock the boat, won’t challenge, won’t stir things up, safe puts up with an E.U that is really beginning to outlive its usefulness and is need of a radical and transparent overall. ‘Safe’ does this because being safe means €400,000 a year and plenty of secretarial help.

I’ll miss unsafe, I’ll miss Ganley’s challenging of the consensus, using words like elite, and idiot, and cartel, (yes words that eventually annoyed me too), I’ll miss his laughing out loud, laughing madly at the irony of calling a recheck to see your votes drop by 3000, seeing the funny side yet proving the point. (You can be sure the same man will be doubled up at the latest Hitler Caricature on youtube, such is the thickness of his skin and his ability to laugh at himself).

Is it not though a monument to our mediocrity that both Harkin and Higgins, former teachers, and yes bright, capable, and hardworking politicians, but who entered politics safe in the knowledge that they were on a career break, that their jobs were there for them, were two of the MEPs we returned and that the other was a man who only ran because a party that has brought our nation to the brink of bankruptcy could not get anyone else to oblige?

Perhaps I am being unfair here, especially to Harkin. If there was one moment of shame I felt during the campaign it was the smearing of her as not being quite the real thing on the pro life issue because she was a member of a group that were very much to the fore in pushing the culture in which the innocents are slaughtered. I did make my views known on that to Declan, explaining that one might as well have attacked Lord David Alton for being a member of the British Liberals, the party that brought abortion to the UK through David Steele’s private members bill. He listened and it stopped.

Harkin is no campaigning David Alton but her pro life views are as authentic as Declan's. Harkin was also a doughty fighter she gave as good as she got. She is tough, after all she was widowed young with children, she could hack it in the classroom, and she was a good agitator for the West.

I know her record on the life issue in the Parliament to have been as good as Kathy Sinnott’s, as good as Gay Mitchell’s, as good as Brian Crowley’s, as Liam Aylward's, as Mairead McGuinness’s. God bless them all for knowing where human rights begin.
Please though be as initiating as Kathy was on this issue, I do know that she often led you and you rarely failed to support her. Who among you will take up that mantle? Gay Mitchell perhaps.

We are living in dangerous times, despite local elections and European elections being held together, turn out was not much above 55%. There is deep anger, disillusionment, and cynicism out there and running a second referendum on Lisbon when it is not needed will add to that.

If a people feel democracy itself is not being respected, if they feel that they are being swamped by a tidal wave of multi layered Governance with all on the make, running around convincing themselves they are making a difference in shell institutions that are becoming impotent, be it here or in Europe, paying themselves too much, if we the People see no difference between the parties, and only vote F.G and Labour by negative default, that they’re not F.F., that is a poor endorsement for Enda Kenny and Eamonn Gilmore.

Look at the average figures between the Local and European Elections. F.G barely above 30% F.F. at 25%, Labour still under 20%, S.F and others at 25% or higher and still F.G and Labour fool themselves that they can offer an alternative when between them they are barely exceeding 50% in a time of major economic and social crisis. Can they not see that we know they are no different? Ganley was different, Joe Higgins is different, (but unlike Decko, transfer friendly).

But back to Ganley, despite it all, his own poor judgement, wrecking himself as he arsed around Europe up to two weeks before polling day, to Eurosceptic crowds who had about as much in common with his own vision as Diane Dodds has with Bairbre De Brun, despite that he got 14%. Despite the well oiled machines of FF, FG, Labour, SF and Harkin, despite an establishment compliant, regional and national media, give or take one or two who can think for themselves; despite a virtual embargo on press releases and photos from his campaign team, despite a buzz not being allowed to build up, (I can now sympathise with John Bruton and F.G in 1999, so annoyed with RTE when they put Charlie Bird on Bertie Ahern and some monotonous voiced melancholic on Bruton to the effect that Bertie had the buzz, the big MO so to speak). Despite all that, including mistakes in his own campaign, he got enough votes that if he was in a five seater he would be virtually elected on the second count and would probably have got a seat in a four seater too.

Look folks, I know Declan Ganley. I am proud to know him. I am proud to have canvassed for him. I am proud to have been part of the madness and the clutching of straws looking through bundles of ballots that were once in wheelie bins. I am not an employee of Declan Ganley, I am not an acolyte, I am not even a member of Libertas. I am proud to have done my best for him. I am proud of his having fought the good fight. I am proud that finally, he showed his best qualities in defeat when he was not given victory. I am proud he has the good sense to now leave the field where he will not be an issue in Lisbon round II, where the arguments should be won by hobbit like perseverance with no distractions and where no matter the result, we know that there truly is a certain kind of providence even in the fall of a sparrow.

I am and always will be Declan Ganley’s friend.