An election campaign has the ability to bring kindred spirits together and that’s very much evident as Elaine Mullally and her team of campaigners gather outside the Beladd housing estate in Portlaoise for a Wednesday evening canvass.
It’s dark, foggy and even beginning to rain lightly. But spirits are high and the humour is good.
They’ve been canvassing now for nine weeks, since Elaine officially announced that she’d be running as an Independent candidate. You can split hairs on whether she was the first to enter the race or not but she was certainly the first of the new names.
A bigger first that she, and others, are seeking to become is the first female TD from Laois. In the long history of General Elections, a Laois woman has never been elected to the Dáil.
“In the last four years, I became completely disillusioned with the whole political system and politicians,” she said at the time of her announcement.
“It was complete frustration. I was writing to TDs and emailing them about different issues and getting no response.
“It is like for the last couple of years that they (elected TDs) are not listening to the people who voted for them.
“It is like we don’t exist to a lot of them – not all, as there are good people – but the majority.”
From Portarlington, where she grew up in St Brigid’s Square with her parents Eamonn and Ann Roycroft as the second eldest in a family of six girls. She still lives in the town with her husband Aidan and two college-going daughters, Rachel and Becky, who are in DCU and UL respectively.
They’ve been knocking on doors in Portlaoise all this week and, before we link up with them to observe the canvass for an hour, they’d been hitting the estates on the Stradbally Road. Elaine herself was also in Ballyfin and Ballyroan doing leaflet drops earlier in the day.
Beladd is one of the oldest housing estates in Portlaoise and neither Elaine nor her team have any strong connections there.
The group are all kitted out in high-viz Elaine Mullally bibs while Elaine herself wears a branded navy jacket. A keen athlete for years she has the runners on and they’re all able to go at a right good pace.
“I love it,” she says as we chat and walk through the estate of her experience canvassing so far. “I absolutely love it.”
This is her first election to contest herself, though she was a founding member of Independent Ireland and helped oversee their recent Local and European Election campaign before parting ways with the party.
She owns the Clown Around play centre in Portarlington and that’s something that resonates with people on the door, particularly those with young children. Many of them have been there before. It’s a popular spot for birthday parties and play dates.
Helpfully for a General Election candidate, it only opens at weekends, so she is dedicating morning, noon and night to this campaign. Her daughters are keeping the Clown Around show on the road at the weekends – though they are madly invested in canvassing too.
On the first door she knocks on, the man that answers is more than glad to chat. He instantly raises his frustration with the health system, explaining that he was recently eight hours in A & E with his son who had suffered a broken arm playing sport. He eventually left without being seen and went to Waterford instead the next day where they were treated.
“Change is definitely needed,” says another woman who answers the door along with her chatty and enthusiastic three-year-old daughter.
That woman too raises frustrations with the health system, where she works herself as a nurse. She explains that staffing levels are the same as what they were 25 years ago and that it’s soul-destroying to see younger nurses, freshly trained, upping and leaving to go to the likes of Australia.
All politics is local and that same woman also raises the issue of the speed limit of 100km/h on the Stradbally road between Beladd and the roundabout just out the way at Ballymacken.
She’s raised it previously at council level to no avail but Elaine asks for an email address and says she’ll see what she can do. Though not an elected representative, she has been making representations for people when issues like that are brought to her attention. The council have been good in engaging with her and helping, she says.
Among her team this evening is Sean Bergin from Durrow. He tells us that he has been a member of Fianna Fáil for more than 50 years and first canvassed for Paddy Lalor in Abbeyleix in the 1960s.
“But I’m fed up of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and how they’re doing things,” he tells us. “I saw this lady’s posters when I was going to the Ploughing and I got in touch with her and spoke to her. I like what I hear from her and I’m delighted to be able to help her.” He has been canvassing for her now for the past couple of weeks in Portlaoise and around his native Durrow and Cullohill.
Also with her is Celine Cole, a Portlaoise native who works locally as an architect. Celine attended some of the public meetings that Elaine ran in recent months around the county and joined the team.
Needless to say there are a handful of houses in and around the estate that Celine designed extensions for in recent times. Knocking on those doors is like being in a real live episode of a Dermot Bannon programme.
One woman brings us in and shows us the kitchen. On the table are some leaflets from other candidates that have been around.
The big issue that the owner of this house brings up is for improved sporting facilities in Portlaoise. The ongoing campaign for a new centre for the Portlaoise Panthers is mentioned though it’s accepted that that is a huge project and won’t happen overnight.
Also part of Elaine’s team is Fiona Power, a Cork woman who moved to live in Portlaoise more than a year ago.
Her connection to Elaine came while she was pursuing the mad hobby of early-morning cold water swimming in the Catholes in Ballyfin. Chatting to someone about the affairs of the world and her frustrations with the current system in Ireland, she was advised to get in touch with Elaine. So she did. And now she’s a bundle of energy and fun out and about with the team every evening.
In the group as well is Colette Byrne from Ballinakill, who contested the recent Local Elections for Independent Ireland, as well as Barry Williams and Stephen O’Reilly who seem to be overseeing operations to ensure no door is knocked on twice and that they don’t get lost in the meandering layout of the various estates.
James Hyland from Portarlington, who closed his coffee shop in Ballybrittas recently, is also knocking on doors and tells us he got involved on the back of his frustration of having to close his business.
“We definitely need change,” says one woman who answers the door. One man says he’s too busy to talk. Another woman says she won’t vote for anyone. That’s about as negative as it gets.
When asked if she’d go into Government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, she says no. Sinn Féin, we ask? The answer is also no.
You’re running out of options so we suggest. “I do think that if I can get elected a group of Independents could come together. The party whip system in this country is too severe, it’s the strictest in the world. We thought in the last election that Sinn Féin were the party of change but they weren’t.
“I’m looking at this as a marathon not a sprint. It’s one job at a time. First things first I have to get elected.”
After Beladd they double back to the Summerhill estate which they had skipped earlier.
And on and on it will go for the next couple of weeks, day and night, out and about trying to meet as many people, make an impression and get every vote possible ahead of polling day on Friday, November 29.
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