Fahey is the ‘anchorman’ as FF go to video blog in West Galway battle

Date Published: {J}

Fianna Fail nationally may have brought in two of Barack Obama’s spin doctors in recent weeks to talk to them – but it was ‘old time politics’ on Sunday when they held their national collection at the church gates all over the country and had to eyeball the voters.

It is an important test on the ground as to how a party is perceived. In the wake of it, FF in Galway were not giving out too much information, but the word I hear is that they were ‘happy enough’ with the response of the public and only one or two ‘had a go’ at them.

My information also is that some few pensioners gave them a little of their mind as they passed by on the way to and from Mass. This was in response to Minister Eamon Ó Cuiv’s intervention on the old age pension during the week, and a reminder that politicians shouldn’t too lightly unsettle particular voters, as the pensioners showed in the Over-70s medical card row.

Ó Cuiv made it clear that he was merely thinking out loud and starting a debate, as did Brian Cowen …. but it is also an indicator for Ó Cuiv that this business of being a very senior minister, with a huge budget, does have its drawbacks. He is a man in control of €20billion, but it’s also one of the key areas where spending cuts must come and could be painful.

Meanwhile, FF in Galway is experimenting with the ‘new media’ in a very new way – with a video blog on the FF website which is about the Galway Outer Bypass. It features Frank Fahey as something akin to the ‘anchorman’ or ‘reporter,’ as FF continue campaigning on an issue on which they have particularly targeted Labour in Galway.

This new style political campaigning on a video blog on www.fiannafail.ie/content/pages/3749/ is certainly a long way from the time when the high point of electioneering was Mark Killilea and John Donnellan trading insults across The Square in Tuam. Or it might be Dr. Bill Loughnane taking out the fiddle and giving them a tune at a crossroads election meeting in Clare.

Back then, some of the cracks could certainly be good entertainment all right – like the night in Tuam at an election rally when Mark Killilea spoke of the potential political marriage between Fine Gael and the PDs and forecast ‘a few rough nights between the sheets in that marriage.’

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.