Laois local elections 2009

[reknaw]

Bystander, your lack of grace is matched only by your lack of common decency. An atypical Shinner, you consider anyone with a view different to yours to be an 'idiot' and a 'fool'. Despite your unsavoury and nasty little attack, I remain lost in admiration for Emerson. An honest voice such as hers in the Council, would have been an invaluable asset to Port., which despite its size, because of ineffective representation, remains the forgotten town in Laois. As a 'senior citizen' myself, I have long despaired at the lack of an effective voice for Port. We are now back to square one, Cribben and Mitchell, God help us all.

I'm afraid I must as politely as possibly disagree with you, Lottie. People who live in glasshouses should not throw stones, and I would invite the other readers to go back and read some of the completely absurd and unsubstantiated allegations you made about a respected, hard-working and dedicated resident of Portarlington, Aidan Mullins, who came very close to winning a seat, before you accuse Bystander of discourtesy or lacking grace.

You were invited to substantiate your allegations, in which you virtually accused Mr. Mullins of being joined at the hip to psychopathic killers, but you did not do so. Because you can not and could not. It is a pity that an otherwise intelligent person like you, and one who cares, allows herself to be so blinded by ridiculous and wilful ignorance and misperceptions.

I have no feelings of animosity towards Ms. Emerson whatsoever, don't question her honesty and don't even hold her mother's former membership of the fascistoid "Progressive Democrats" (what a misnomer!) against her, but she deserved to lose for her appalling misjudgement in allying herself with a whack-job, and your fellow rabid Sinn Fein-baiter, like "Baloney Moloney". When a country is in dire economic straits and a town like Portarlington is hungry for jobs, there is inevitably less tolerance for the NIMBY position, much less the more extreme BANANA one that has held up a whole slew of developments that are badly needed to revitalise the centre of Portarlington.

Not least when the dogs in the streets know that Boloney's opposition to the Tesco scheme was a red herring given his involvement with another project in the town that has been dead in the water for years and has no hope at all if the Tesco project goes ahead.

Rather than moan about Ray Cribben (and he's far from the worst of them) or Paul Mitchell, why couldn't you have shaken off your Blueshirt prejudices and given a bit of support to Aidan, who has done so much for the town and will certainly continue to do so despite your mean-spirited carping about him and your disgraceful attempts at character assassination?

That said, congrats to all of the successful candidates whether or not I agree with their parties and policies. As the political philosopher Mickey O'Velly pointed out: In a democracy, the people get the leaders they deserve.

[The People's Party]

Bystander, your lack of grace is matched only by your lack of common decency. An atypical Shinner, you consider anyone with a view different to yours to be an 'idiot' and a 'fool'. Despite your unsavoury and nasty little attack, I remain lost in admiration for Emerson. An honest voice such as hers in the Council, would have been an invaluable asset to Port., which despite its size, because of ineffective representation, remains the forgotten town in Laois. As a 'senior citizen' myself, I have long despaired at the lack of an effective voice for Port. We are now back to square one, Cribben and Mitchell, God help us all.

You have to admit that Emerson made the wrong decision when she allied herself with Moloney and Gormley. This cost her both Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and even some Fine Gael support.

Personally I found that she was arrogant in the extreme, even thinking that she could just waltz into a Council seat, and its for the better that someone as arrogant as herself failed to get elected. She even had her kids wearing t-shirts with "Independence Day" and "Vote Frances Emerson 1" printed on them. If a Sinn Fein candidate did that they'd be accused of "exploiting/using their children"!

[The People's Party]

Does nobody read back before asking questions?

I read back, and found Sean-Bhean-Bocht's post, but its not the final list.

[Bystander]

You have to admit that Emerson made the wrong decision when she allied herself with Moloney and Gormley. This cost her both Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and even some Fine Gael support.

Personally I found that she was arrogant in the extreme, even thinking that she could just waltz into a Council seat, and its for the better that someone as arrogant as herself failed to get elected. She even had her kids wearing t-shirts with "Independence Day" and "Vote Frances Emerson 1" printed on them. If a Sinn Fein candidate did that they'd be accused of "exploiting/using their children"!

Frances Emerson was a weak candidate because she had no track record in the area - prior to the election she had contributed nothing as a community activist. She thought that her mother's hard work in the community and her brother's GAA involvement entitled her to votes. She joined Port GAA committee last year and contributed little or nothing since and word has it today (to be confirmed) that she resigned over the weekend. Am I cynical in thinking her joining was a vote getting exercise? Her leaflet was a mess with spelling and grammatical mistakes and it even invited people who were anxious or needed help to contact her in private! Dear God! People expect more from their candidates and representatives. I don't know where Lottie got her information because Emerson canvassed poorly and was never going to be in contention. If she is really interested in her community it will be interesting to see what she does over the coming years as an activist / volunteer.

[The People's Party]

Frances Emerson was a weak candidate because she had no track record in the area - prior to the election she had contributed nothing as a community activist. She thought that her mother's hard work in the community and her brother's GAA involvement entitled her to votes. She joined Port GAA committee last year and contributed little or nothing since and word has it today (to be confirmed) that she resigned over the weekend. Am I cynical in thinking her joining was a vote getting exercise? Her leaflet was a mess with spelling and grammatical mistakes and it even invited people who were anxious or needed help to contact her in private! Dear God! People expect more from their candidates and representatives. I don't know where Lottie got her information because Emerson canvassed poorly and was never going to be in contention. If she is really interested in her community it will be interesting to see what she does over the coming years as an activist / volunteer.

From that analysis, she was involved in politics for the wrong reasons. Unless you show an active interest in the community and connect with people you are at nothing. Ground work is what gets people like Brian Stanley and Alan Hand elected, its what got Aidan Mullins close to election.

The only person in the Independent Alliance who managed to get elected was Michael Gormley to Mountmellick TC, but yet across the country Independents swept great victories even in Portlaoise Rotimi Adebari made TC and CC, and he refused to join the Independent Alliance because he could see how teaming with Motormouth Moloney would lose him transfers from Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail.

Lottie has a very bad sense of political judgment, and I would hazard a guess that she has not been involved with local politics for long.

[mmrebel]

Any one hear how things are going with the recount in portlaois

[kimble]

You have to admit that Emerson made the wrong decision when she allied herself with Moloney and Gormley. This cost her both Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and even some Fine Gael support.

Personally I found that she was arrogant in the extreme, even thinking that she could just waltz into a Council seat, and its for the better that someone as arrogant as herself failed to get elected. She even had her kids wearing t-shirts with "Independence Day" and "Vote Frances Emerson 1" printed on them. If a Sinn Fein candidate did that they'd be accused of "exploiting/using their children"!

Arrogant to the extreme???your having a laugh bud......Frances Emerson hasn't an arrogant bone in her body. You think she was arrogant because she had a few t-shirts printed up Most candidates had t-shirts printed up. Mary Sweeney is a friend on mine on facebook.....look at her photos where her kids and grandkids are all wearing Mary Sweeney NO 1 t-shirts and she got elected. Same to for Abatari....all his family and friends where wearing t-shirts and the all had there cars plastered with stickers.
Candidates believing that they could get elected without so much as putting up a poster is what you can call arrogant.....Oh Brian Stanley did put up posters after......Whats this he said......its a binding agreement that should not be broken......but he did break the agreement.....NOW THATS WHAT YOU CALL ARROGANCE

[youwinsomeyoulosesome]

Well done to all who succeeded in the recent elections and sincere commiserations to all who didn't make it this time.

It's rather interesting and somewhat amusing, reading the posts prior to and following the LC election. Some posts are appalling and disturbing especially the ones aimed at Fran Emerson and her family. That is their business and should not be so casually thrown up for discussion on a forum. Fran should not have had to relate such personal and private information on this site.

In regard to Cllr. James Deegan – well done him on getting through yet again. He did a tremendous campaign with the help of all his family and loyal friends. As always, he kept his thoughts to himself and kept his campaign clean – well done.

Also, well done to Brian Stanley on his successful win and finally, last but not least, a huge congrats to Ben Brennan who only started his campaign 3 weeks beforehand!?! FF would not let him run so he went out on his own as an Independent – class I feel he will be a great benefit to the county of Laois.

[The Real King]

[QUOTE=youwinsomeyoulosesome;1758945]Well done to all who succeeded in the recent elections and sincere commiserations to all who didn't make it this time.

In regard to Cllr. James Deegan – well done him on getting through yet again. He did a tremendous campaign with the help of all his family and loyal friends. As always, he kept his thoughts to himself and kept his campaign clean – well done.

Here Here

Well done James to you and If Deegan did not get elected we would have had no councillor in Stradbally because Saddle Head would not have gotten through on Transfers.
To all those who bashed him on a daily basis he never reacted to the negative publicity that he got from ever canidate and individuals on the campaign trail he has been a sitting councillor for over 16 years now and has done some great things for the Surrounding Stradbally area.
More Luck to you Cllr Deegan.
Lottie just to let you know it was not Deegan who tried to stop G halford in goin as the Port Canidate.
Some day Lottie when I am in the Library in Port I will call in for coffee accross the road I might bring Kimble with me also I went to school with him in Strad and the picture will become very clear as we did not want stir up a hornets nest durning the campaign.

[Lottie]

[quote=The Real King;1759512]

Well done to all who succeeded in the recent elections and sincere commiserations to all who didn't make it this time.

In regard to Cllr. James Deegan – well done him on getting through yet again. He did a tremendous campaign with the help of all his family and loyal friends. As always, he kept his thoughts to himself and kept his campaign clean – well done.

Here Here

Well done James to you and If Deegan did not get elected we would have had no councillor in Stradbally because Saddle Head would not have gotten through on Transfers.
To all those who bashed him on a daily basis he never reacted to the negative publicity that he got from ever canidate and individuals on the campaign trail he has been a sitting councillor for over 16 years now and has done some great things for the Surrounding Stradbally area.
More Luck to you Cllr Deegan.
Lottie just to let you know it was not Deegan who tried to stop G halford in goin as the Port Canidate.
Some day Lottie when I am in the Library in Port I will call in for coffee accross the road I might bring Kimble with me also I went to school with him in Strad and the picture will become very clear as we did not want stir up a hornets nest durning the campaign.

Firstly,point of clarification, my home is located nowhere near the Library in Port. Think you are confusing me with FG branch secretary whos home is directly opposite. She might be a bit surprised at yourself and Kimble barrelling up on her doorstep, but as her hospitality is famous in Port, I'm sure you would both be welcomed in her customary friendly fashion. She made her home, including office facilities, freely available to Port FG. We all miss the fun of the meetings. As for your claim that the Deegan camp had nothing to do with the scuppering of our chosen candidate G. Halford, might I advise you that we have investigated and we know exactly what happened. Bottom line is that Port is once again devoid of decent representation. Shame on the lot of you.