Review of Senate Election - Part 1

This years general election was my first attempt at getting a Trinity seat in the Seanad. I considered trying in 2002 but decided not to as the three incumbents were fairly active. In the intervening years I got no literature from Mary Henry and I had heard that David Norris had retired from his lecturing job in Trinity and had moved to Cyprus, so it looked like a vacancy was coming up. As it happened Mary decided not to run again, so who was going to replace her another doctor, a scientist who new about climate change and earth science (me), or another woman?

Given that all politics is local I decided to write to all my neighbours ( or more specifically those with Terenure in their address) and asked for support. I was fairly shocked when I one of the recipients ( someone I knew vaguely) started to snub me. I not sure what the complaint was, my discovery of a less than grand address, misconstruing my letter seeking support as a begging letter, or maybe my letter arrived at a bad personal time. Most people greeted the news with delight. One neighbour suffering from the Bolton Street Complex was masquerading as a Trinity graduate and the only time he spent in Trinity was picking up a DU building degree.

After introducing to my neighbours I wrote to a sample of 3,000 electors and introduced myself. I followed these letters up with a call to try and find out what the issues that concerned them were. I only had one negative response ( a relative of a well known Nazi), I now regret not giving her an earful. I had a very enjoyable conversation with Professor Luce who was the Dean of Science when I was a Junior Freshman Natural Science student. He made me aware that my academic prowess was being badmouthed by other contenders and that he was impressed by my approach to the campaign. The Luce family was one of the first victims of drug violence in Dublin, Professor Luce's brother was savagely murdered in his home by an intruder in the late seventies.

http://www.shayconway.org/