Derek’s new ginger beard – yay or nay?

Bradley Bytes – A Sort of Political Column by Dara Bradley

Derek Nolan has a new look – a ginger beard.

Or at least ginger stubble; he’s too fresh-faced for a full-on beard.

We don’t know how or why, but, somehow, the national media missed this monumental event.

Perhaps they were too busy during the ‘silly season’ filling white space with a daily, running commentary on BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman’s new facial growth (even the Guardian was at it, not just the tabloids).

Closer to home, the facial fascination was with RTÉ Rose of Tralee presenter, Dáithí Ó Sé, who also sported temporary ‘summer stubble’. But Derek’s growth was missed by the Meeja on both sides of the Irish Sea.

We can’t figure out whether Derek’s facial hair was a fashion statement, a signal of an impending midlife crisis, or what we like to call a ‘five o’clock shadow’ from someone who was out on the tear the night before and hadn’t the energy to shave.

To have your say, yay or nay, on whether the city-based Labour Party TD should keep his beard vote at www.gingerbeardopinionpoll.ie.

Mayos have never been so popular!

First we’d Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív dressed in a red and green Mayo jersey, courting the Mayo vote for the constituency redraw at the next election (incidentally, astute as ever, he’d a Galway jersey on at the Galway memorial Walk in aid of Galway Hospice last week!); and now, it seems, they’re all at it.

Fine Gael TD, Seán Kyne, has chipped in with a lame attempt to let the Mayos know he’s thinking about them, when he tweeted: “At the Ballinrobe show at the racecourse, a wonderful family day, great crowd and great entries in livestock show, warm afternoon in Mayo.”

Not to be outdone, former Labour Galway East TD, Colm Keaveaney, was on Twitter as well, in the past few weeks, tweeting about how the Mayo footballers were going to win the All-Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.