Debauchery and depravity in Dublin

The drunk and the powerful came together, they came with their wives and their fans, they slapped backs and winked at each other for they knew what so many had denied for so long - that Fianna Fail was going to win the 2007 general election. They gathered in groups of two and three, these Fianna Failers, and they had many things in common.

The men had a look about them. They'd made an effort, scrubbed up well, shaved with a new razor and made sure their shirt was washed and ironed. They were middle aged, 40 or 50, and had the distinct appearance of Irishmen; faintly flushed red faces, cheeky puppy fat straying over the waistline and a strut, an air, a palpable confidence that found much of its vibrancy in the releasing of some major anxiety. They had been written off, their failures were well known, they looked washed up and worn out and distinctly past it but they recovered. Rope a dope. Just when you thought they were out, they pulled themselves back in.

In the count centre in Dublin West - a sports hall with sports hall floors, sports hall walls and sports hall stuffiness - they were giving oxygen to the old timer. This old Fianna Fail fox, the one you thought was beaten, had a new tune for us all to hear. It was the only show in town, they sang. The chorus called out that they and they alone were to be trusted. And the sight of Brian Lenihan tearing past the quota on the first count was a guitar solo that the great Jimi Hendrix himself would have thought igloo cool.

Lenihan's victory had never been in doubt. When I arrived late morning he looked assured. He jumped every fence and won at a canter. But in his dust lay some Trojan mares. The newcomer, Leo Varadkar from Fine Gael. The lady of some class and genuine tenderness, Joan Burton of Labour. And the tough old orator, the man they want to label but can't hold down, Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party.

They trampled all over the competition. Mags Murray of the PDs got 500 votes and a pat on the head: Mags Murray in the Dail - no thanks! Roderic O'Gorman of the Greens, with his fresher than organic parsley face and his clunkier than tonycascarino name (why not Roddy?) could never make much of a mark in an area dominated by voters who value down to earth people rather than politics. Felix Gallagher of Sinn Fein came nowhere and really didn't lay a glove on the main contenders. Gerry Lynam, the number two Fianna Fail man, did what was expected - ate into Higgins' vote and claimed Lenihan's surplus. It must be funny being the number two - there were rosettes for Brian Lenihan and stickers for Gerry Lynam.

While the three waited to see who would take the two seats Fianna Failers walked around with grins that Pat Rabbitte would think a bit much. They reeked of drink, brandy and Guinness. They gathered and whispered. They run the country, these men and women. They are the party machine. They saw the polls and the bad coverage and they redoubled their efforts. They bought second pairs of shoes and taped Coronation Street - serious canvassing had to be done. And you could see from them, they were over the moon, it had worked, whatever their strategy, whatever won it for them, it worked. They offer people hope. That's my guess. They offer social mobility to the working classes and social stability to the middle classes and social dominance to the builders classes. Labour and Fine Gael offer social solidity. Just as admirable - and some would say more so - but not romantic, not special, not new and richer.

For Fianna Fail and Fine Gael there were no young people and no accents you would recognise as Dublin born and bred. There were young people for Greens, Labour, SF and Socialist parties. For the PDs there was just Mags God love her.

Varadkar looked confident. He led the race and was close to the quota. Fianna Fail and Labour whispered about him. Where does he get his money. How much has he spent. How did he afford those posters on bustops. If Fianna Fail were jealous, Labour sounded frustrated. Varadkar came from nowhere, he's a doctor with a weedy voice and an easy affable manner, but who is he? What's he about? What does he represent? Beside Burton and Higgins he looked like a nobody. But he's a somebody, he certainly is, whether people like it or not, he represents thousands of people - reliable, genuine, nice, of good stock, all these things a father looks for when a daughter brings her boyfriend home - Varadkar has them.

He also has a Dail seat, he took it in a constituency where the weak are swallowed without need for chewing. There are some serious operators out here. We get the government we deserve? In Dublin West we feel pretty good about ourselves on that basis. Or we did until Leo took Joes seat.

Joe was gutted, really shaken. He came to the count centre with his mother. He stood all day with supporters, rifling through the numbers. He slapped no backs and didn't laugh to catch attention. He's not on first name terms with the wheelers and dealers of the other parties. He's his own man, a serious man, but he looked rattled when he saw the figures that pointed to Burton taking the last seat.

When Varadkar won and Burton won there were huge cheers but with those announcements came the death notice for Joe Higgins TD. The man who got up Bertie's nose more than the media and the tribunals put together - he made him crack, and it's rare to get a rise our of this most calm and composed Taoiseach. Joe Higgins did a number of remarkable things for a man whose party had one seat in the Dail. Who in the opposition parties could match him for intellect, decency, sincerity, wit and principle? The truth is we need more Joes. We don't need more Leos. Everybody knew it. Everybody said they'd miss Joe. Celebrations were muted by his loss. It seemed rather tasteless for people of the Left - if that's what Labour are - to celebrate the loss of the purest expression of their ideals.

Those who voted, who came out and did the business for Fianna Fail, they won't miss him. He's everything they fear. They are conservative, that is the nature of the people who vote in this country - that is clear. Joe will be back, Dublin West is due another seat. But his extreme views of social solidity send shivers through those who vote Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Not only does he represent equality - for them he represents inequality; they would have to give up more than the average earner for his ideas - and that's never going to happen. It's hard to see how things will ever be much different in Ireland. But at least he keeps trying. The struggle in itself to reach the heights is enough to fill a man's heart.

Irish General Election - 2007

Way out past the green fields of the Phoenix Park and just beyond the mind-crushing, bumper to bumper M50, lies West Dublin. Famous only for the odd sensational murder, it's also the fastest growing place in Ireland, with a population of over 90,000 at the 2006 census. More people than Galway city, so they say. It is the hearbeat of the new Ireland, the one where catholicism and the English language no longer dominate. There is no real history out here - housing estates are still being piled onto green space and it will take a while to see what effect all this change has. There's no-one really famous, for any reason, from west Dublin. So a place is being created, a community perhaps, a suburb for sure. It's where I live and where I will focus on for the general election.

I won't bore you with the candidates; instead, just to set the ball rolling, here's a taste of what one Fianna Fail man had to say about HIV at a recent meeting between young people and politicans.

"The reason there is a HIV and TB crisis here is because we let people into the country without medical screening. In the US and Australia you have to do a full medical if you want to emigrate there."


That was from Gerry Lynam (right - pun intended), the man with a ronnie that could shine shoes or sweep the streets, Fianna Fail's latest weapon in its war against Socialist Joe Higgins, Labour's Joan Burton and Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar. He's a decent bloke, Gerry Lynam, but is prone to populist, lazy, stereotypical rubbish. Besides pandering to fears, paranoia and uncertainty of the local electorate, he also does himself a diservice.

He has done admirable work for many years as part of the Greater Blanchardstown Repsonse to Drugs. So why come out with - what he surely knows to be - lies? Is he, a man who ran as an independent in the last election, that desperate to be elected that he will ignore what he knows and manipulate what people don't?

HIV and TB were in Ireland long before we had immigration - they were spread, primarily, by repeatedly using the same needles while injecting heroin. That's why so many people with a heroin addiction in Ireland have HIV. That's why we have a crisis - trying to lay the blame on people who can't even vote in the next election is revolting.

(Local paper Community Voice picked up on this and that's where I got it so fair play, it's a good paper).