Looking Left next Friday … February 21, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in The Left.Tags: 2011 election
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Just thought I’d get a list of Left candidates together before the election. I know classifying who is ‘Left’ can be tricky and may cause some debate. (Its almost like the disputes as to which band were really metal I had in my youth, It used to gall me terribly to have ‘Europe’ and their ilk described as Heavy Metal).
Who have I left out?
To avoid the SF /Labour Left debate …Labour candidates can be found here and Sinn Fein candidates here.
Carlow Kilkenny: Conor Mac Liam (SP -ULA)
Cavan Monaghan:
Clare:
Cork East:
Cork North Central: Mick Barry (SP -ULA), Ted Tynan (WP)
Cork North West: Anne Foley (PBP -ULA)
Cork South Central:
Cork South West :
Donegal North East:
Donegal South West: Thomas Pringle
Dublin Central: Malachy Steenson (WP), Cieran Perry, Maureen O’Sullivan, Christy Burke
Dublin Mid West: Rob Connolly (SP -ULA) , Mick Finnegan (WP), Gino Kenny (PBP -ULA)
Dublin North: Clare Daly (SP -ULA)
Dublin North Central: Finian McGrath , John Lyons (PBP -ULA)
Dublin North East: Brian Greene (SP -ULA)
Dublin North West: John Dunne(WP), Andrew Keegan (PBP -ULA)
Dublin South: Nicola Curry (PBP -ULA)
Dublin South Central: Joan Collins (PBP -ULA)
Dublin South East: Annette Mooney (PBP -ULA)
Dublin South West: Mick Murphy (SP -ULA)
Dublin West: Joe Higgins (SP -ULA)
Dun Laoghaire: Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP -ULA)
Galway East:
Galway West: Catherine Connolly
Kerry North Limerick West: Mary Fitzgibbon
Kerry South:
Kildare North: Catherine Murphy
Kildare South:
Laois Offaly: Raymond Fitzpatrick (ULA), Liam Dumpleton
Limerick: Seamus Sherlock
Limerick City: Cian Prendiville (SP -ULA)
Longford Westmeath:
Louth:
Mayo:
Meath East:
Meath West: Seamus McDonagh (WP)
Roscommon South Leitrim:
Sligo North Leitrim: Declan Bree (ULA)
Tipperary North:
Tipperary South: Seamus Healy (WUAG-ULA)
Waterford : Joe Tobin(WP) , John Halligan
Wexford: Seamus O’Brien (PBP -ULA) , John Dwyer ,
Wicklow: Nicky Kelly
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
A very useful list. You are a hive of industry. No doubt some corrections will be offered.
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Nicky Kelly? You’re kidding, right?
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maybe not but there were stories linking him to the ULA when he declared he was going to stand.
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You are right that there was at least one story to that effect, but it was never something that was on the cards.
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Finian McGrath?
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Good question. Another one: Maureen O’Sullivan?
McGrath certainly was very amenable to supporting the FF/Green govt. in exchange for permission to claim credit for things like new classroom buildings and private hospitals in his constituency. A sort of Dublin Healy Rae. O’Sullivan I believe would be the same except that the things she would be looking for would be for community development in the North Inner City, so slightly more deserving than McGraths?
Whatever way you look at it, all the cards look like being FGs after the election. They can tell Labour to join them in Govt and toe the FG line or sit on the backbenches cos FG can go it alone with independents. We’re fooked.
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I think you should add Ming Flanagan (Roscommon South Leitrim) to the list. I’m not part of his campaign, don’t live in his constituency and have met him only once. Perhaps not easy to classify as “Left” but he’s an intelligent rural radical who has long hair, smokes illicit substances and goes kayaking (what’s not to like?). Policies here http://www.lukemingflanagan.ie/policies/
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I’d thought of putting him in alright but he is part of that New Vision crowd with John McGuirk ,a former FF Councillor, some former FF backroom people and others whos outlook would not be exactly Left.
That said if I were marooned in Roscommon South Leitrim he’d more than likely get my vote.
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John Halligan supports service charges and, according to yesterday’s Sunday Independent, is being wooed by Fine Gael. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fine-gael-contacts-independents-2548149.html
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Please be careful about citing a Sindo report as evidence of anything. If I recall correctly, he was being tipped as a defector to SF from the WP a few years back.
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That said if I were marooned in Roscommon South Leitrim
IEL:
I know exactly what you mean!
When I lived in Ireland, fadó,fadó, I used to have nightmares about being marooned in Dublin!
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you bottled it here cedarlounge. Letting yourself be bullied by the Trot trolls.
Sinn Fein is the only party that has called for an actual ‘vote left’ without putting preconditions on what constitutes left.
ULA calls for a left vote – then defines Left as only those Left of the Transitional Programme of 1938.
Labour calls for a left vote – with left being those to the Left of Enda Kenny.
Sinn Fein? despite all the attacks still calls for a left preference – ULA, WP, Labour, etc.
But, in order to avoid the sectarian vitriol of trolls like Mark P, you bottle it and leave Sinn Fein out.
good to know cedarlounge is so easily pushed around.
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Well there’s a link to lists of both Labour and Sinn Fein candidates.
The aim was to get a list of Left candidates to look out for when the counting starts. Those that get thrown into the Independents/Others trough.
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That’s odd. To the lay observer CIP, it appears to be you doing the trolling, even accusing irishelectionliterature of cowardice. If you’re going to throw an uninformed hissy fit then do it elsewhere.
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Ha!
What an amazing comment. I didn’t know I exerted such immense influence over you IEL.
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Well, that’s right CIP. Clearly the CLR is simply an ULA proxy. Which would explain why we have regular coverage of SF events, etc, etc why we always include SF in the ‘left’ in analyses, etc, why we consider SF part of the left and so on. I won’t speak for IELB, he’s made a perfectly reasonable case for himself, but really a moments examination of the site demonstrates how incorrect the assumption underlying your comment is.
All he’s done is put together a simple list of candidates of formations and other groups that are not in Sinn Féin or Labour.
By the way take a look to the column on the right of this comment and you’ll see the run through of political formations. All are leftwing, though some would quibble with regard to the Labour Party. And what’s that? Why there’s SF included too. As it should be.
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You need to read my comment worldbystorm, instead of going off at the kneecap.
I didn’t say it was your virew that Sinn Fein wasn’t left.
I said that you have been bullied into appeasing a highly secatrian view of what is left-wing.
If you thought that Sinn Fein was right-wing, how could you be bullied into thinking it was right-wing?
Less knee-jerks, worldbystorm, more reading.
now, I’ll leave you to carry on now with the appeasement of the Trot bullies.
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But by the same token you’re not reading IELB/AK’s rationale – and by the by, there’s no CLR line. Some of our contributors/founders aren’t exactly fond of SF, though hardly from a ULA perspective, some wouldn’t necessarily be hugely fond of the ULA, some would be fond of both. I certainly don’t ask to review AK’s posts before he posts them up and I didn’t this time, nor will in future. I trust him to go with the broad thrust of the CLR which argues for engagement with the left in all its forms and having met AK I’m 100% sure he’s not in the slightest bit concerned about the ULA coming round his gaffe and tearing up his posters and leaflets.
So you’re seriously reading far too much into his post which was merely a convenience in order to list non-LP, non-SF candidates of the left in smaller formations.
Now, I genuinely can’t see the problem there. It’s kind of handy.
By the way, as I was saying to someone only last week on here who ironically enough accused me of being effectively a shill for SF, my politics can be roughly triangulated as being between Gregory like community politics, SF and the WP, though I’ll make no apology for being happy to see the ULA do well as well. I make no secret of that. Never have.
I figure we’re doing something right.
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‘Trot bullies’
I give Garibaldy one nipple-twister and I never hear the end of it.
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I’d probably include Alwyn Love and Veronica Cawley in Sligo/North Leitrim as leftish – standing as independents but ex-Labour.
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What no love for Michael Kilcoyne in Mayo?
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A careful reader can spot a little difference between these documents:
Transitional Programme:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm
ULA Programme:
http://www.unitedleftalliance.org/about-us/
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Indeed. The ULA’s programme is a minimum programme on which different parties and candidates with differing opinions can agree while proposing their own programmes within that framework. The SP have a transitional programme and I would imagine the SWP have something similar. Incidentally, it’s a slight misapprehension that Trotskyist parties use the actual late 30s transitional programme. They build their programmes based on the methods used to construct that programme, i.e: linking day to day demands with the need for socialism. You’ll notice for example that the SP don’t call for workers militias…yet 🙂
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AS far as I know the ULA has declined to advise how preferences should be used. Unsatisfactory perhaps but the case. When asked on radio how to vote where no ULA candidate was running Joe Higgins said, very generally, vote left.
Perhaps there is some confusion between those the ULA say they could ally with and those the ULA say you could vote for. (The precondition to alliance is agreement on no coalition – ever – with Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil).
After the election it will be an interesting exercise to attempt to reckon up the total left and left leaning vote. I remember my friend John Cane used to do this for ‘Gralton’ magazine in the 80s. Sinn Féin was always included and I would of course still include it in the estimated total of those intentionally voting left or left-leaning dissident.
By the way and for the record, is there a reference for when Sinn Féin called for a vote specifically for the ULA and the Workers Party?
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D_D:
You are correct that the ULA has not issued advice on how supporters should continue their preferences, at least nationally (individual candidates may have done so locally).
As someone who would vigorously oppose any suggestion that the ULA should call for votes or transfers for Labour, Sinn Fein or the Greens, I don’t regard that situation as unsatisfactory in the slightest.
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To be honest DD, I don’t think many people will be pulling their hair out in Mayo or East Cork in an existential void because we haven’t advised them on who to vote for. Personally, most of the non-ULA people on the list above seems fine to me. Personally I would say to people to vote left independent, WP or if there are SFers with a strong left record (for example Eoin O’Broin) to vote for them. People haven’t asked me or the ULA who to vote for and aren’t likely to so that’s not really an issue.
SF haven’t called specifically for a ULA or WP vote. That was a manipulation of the truth by CIP who came trolling over here to accuse me, Mark P etc. of being trolls. It should also be mentioned that the ULA haven’t lumped SF in with Lab, FF, and FG. This video shows that we have been critical of them but haven’t condemned them in the same terms that are reserved for FF, FG and FG-Junior: http://ephemeralleft.blogspot.com/2011/02/joe-higgins-dun-laoighaire-ula-launch.html
As that shows there are issues relating to SF’s record in Stormont and their about-face in 2007 but also acknowledging that their current programme is a left programme. Our attitude to SF is something that will be probably be discussed in the future when there is a national ULA conference (planned for Feb but postponed due to election moving forward)
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I know it will be difficult.
A column on attitude to coalition.ULA all against it
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@ Irishelectionliterature
You said this in response to my comment:
“The aim was to get a list of Left candidates to look out for when the counting starts.”
But you said this in the post:
“To avoid the SF /Labour Left debate …Labour candidates can be found here and Sinn Fein candidates here.”
You made it very clear that you didn’t want to list sinn fein and labour candidates as left candidates as it would only spark a debate over who is left and who isn’t.
But you hive given us a definition of sorts of left in the names you have listed.
All the ULA, along with Finian McGrath (who supported FF/Green gov) and Catherine Connolly in Galway who voted for cuts in Galway.
The stance you have taken isn’t yours, otherwise why the inclusion of Finian McGrath, but rather that of the Trot troll Mark P.
you’ve been bullied into taking Mark P’s highly sectarian stance on what is left-wing.
Good luck with that.
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You clearly haven’t read his post. The list above was compiled due to the fact that lists of all Lab and SF candidates are already available at the links posted above. Again you’ve insulted both IEL and Mark by suggesting that the former lives in fear at the thought of Mark contesting his definition of left. As amusing as the thought of IEL cowering under his bed, afraid to go near his laptop in case Mark disagrees with him is, you have accused Mark of trolling and IEL of cowardice. Both of them are valued and regular contributors. You on the other hand have posted twice today in order to insult both of them based on your refusal to actually read IEL’s post and some sort of grudge against Mark P.
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This guy is great. Please don’t scare him off. I’m not sure which I enjoy more: (1) The quite mad but ego inflating notion that IEL, WbS, etc are trembling in fear at the idea of my displeasure or (2) The equally mad notion that Martin McGuinness’s easy way with PFI schemes qualifies Sinn Fein as a left party.
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Sinn Fein tacks left when it suits them and now appear radical as FF once did when they were founded in the 1920s.
When in government as in the six counties SF will cut and follow a neoliberal agenda like M. Martin and E. Kenny et al. do in the 26 counties, all in the pursuit of respectability and mature responsibility of office(last phrase is the (c) of John Gormley & co.).
I know Tim Pat is a 26 counties nationalist but he has the total measure of Sinn Fein (and FF before them):
‘Tim Pat Coogan, has described it as “a sad story of how idealism and revolutions start in hope and glory and end up fumbling in a greasy till”‘.
IIRC Tim Pat also said give them (SF) 20 years and they (SF) will be collecting brown envelopes too.
I know there are some good left people in SF, but they do not fully represent the majority.
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Again I won’t answer for IELB or AK, but I fundamentally disagree with Mark P’s idea that SF isn’t left wing [we agree to disagree on that]. And as I noted before in analysis after analysis on here I’ve argued that. Which doesn’t mean SF is beyond criticism, any more than the ULA, indeed last week I was also criticising the ULA for not having a developed policy platform to my satisfaction.
But when it comes down to it I would argue that people should vote for left wing forces that won’t go into coalition with FG or FF.
Now by any definition I can think of that includes SF amongst many others. I wouldn’t say people have to vote for SF, some people have genuine reservations for a range of issues. But then again I wouldn’t say people should vote ULA either, some people also have genuine reservations for a range of issues.
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If the ULA were to not yet have a detailed policy set is that much different to its component parties which failed over years to develop policy positions instead relying on opinion pieces.
Anyhow that can change too.
Must say I find it unusual that Christy Burke is listed. Would he not have been listed if he was still in Sinn Fein. What a difference 18 months makes.
Further has Christy not voted for the city estimates. The same city estimates which the other left parties were against as where Sinn Fein.
I guess all these definitions of who is “real” left needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
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I’d not want to diss Christy Burke, but I’d agree his approach on DCC doesn’t make me entirely sure we could class him as left.
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@ WBS
“I would argue that people should vote for left wing forces that won’t go into coalition with FG or FF.”
Finian McGrath?
Catherine Connolly?
Christy Burke?
Hardly a consistent argument.
You backed down with Sinn Fein and Labour as being left, but then have McGrath, Connolly and Burke on your list.
Oh, last week you had Mrark P and co. calling for people to be banned, although Mark P wants my comments to stay up as they amuse him.
Yeah. That is what your site is these days. A plaything for Trots.
I say that you are really real proud of that. All that work, and the trots call the shots!
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Not the best on the old reading comprehension front perhaps CIP.
Look closely at the original article. It was written by IEL, not WorldbyStorm. IEL didn’t express any opinion on whether Labour or SF are “left” in his posting and hasn’t commented since.
WbS didn’t write the original posting and far from “backtracking” has consistently argued that Sinn Fein are a left party, both in this thread and elsewhere. I don’t agree with him, but he’s been consistent on this point.
What’s more, because the list at the top isn’t his list there is no contradiction between him saying that he advocates voting for anti-coalition left forces and the appearance of, say, Finian McGrath’s name on a list which he didn’t write. And which didn’t include a call for people to vote for those candidates anyway!
As for “Trots calling the shots”, I can assure that I have WbS, IEL and Garibaldy on a strict rota when it comes to tidying up my house.
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Honestly CIP, what gives? I don’t want to get on your case, but you clearly don’t bother reading this site all that often since if you did you’d know that myself and others and Mark P and others have had strenuous disagreements in the past, and no doubt will in the future. But you know, one thing I genuinely like about Mark P is that he has never descended, however heated our disagreements, into slagging off the site or me or AK or Garibaldy (and by the way vice versa) and I think that demonstrates a degree of sincerity on his part and in fairness the strain of left politics he espouses.
You, however, with your ‘trot’ jibes, and your single transferable gripe about how this site has done this, that or the other, you I’m not so sure about.
And by the way, what Mark P says as regards a list I didn’t compile, had no hand or part in, etc, etc. There’s no contradiction between my stance and AK’s or Garibaldy’s or Tomboktu’s, or whoever… there’s no party line here, no one is required to tow a particular approach. If any or all of them don’t like SF and have cogent reasons for saying so I’m not going to gag them, same goes with the ULA, no more than they’d gag me if I were to express criticisms of SF or the ULA or the LP or whoever. We can all have different, even contradictory opinions. And in some areas we do.
Once you know that what’s the problem?
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Put down Brian Markham i gContae an Chlair.
I’ve heard of some SFer’s there canvassing for him.
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What’s his background?
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21 year old student. He’s being saying close enough to the right things on the canvass in his native Kilrush and in the local media. Locally a good few SFer’s are voting for him given the absence of a candidate there.
He’s the best of an absolutely lousy bunch (Meany and MacNamara are clear headed though compared to the other gombeens running for the county).
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Could be because there’s no SF candidate in Clare.
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I think quite a few people will vote Labour rather than Fine Gael on the grounds that a Lab/FG coalition would be marginally less punitive than a FG single party government. It might not be a particularly noble stance but perhaps it’s better than nothing. Myself, I’ll be voting SF and transferring to Lab, again on the basis that there aren’t any other possibilities. I’ll also be hoping that the ULA take as many seats as possible but as they’re not standing here I can’t vote for them. I liked the heavy metal analogy at the top, I suppose Labour are hair metal and SF are a kind of crossover band like the Chili Peppers who incorporate elements of metal into their music. PBP and SP are Metallica and Megadeth but I haven’t made up my mind whether Higgins is Mustaine and Boyd Barrett Hetfield or vice versa. Best of luck to anyone here who’s been involved in a campaign. Respect.
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Does that make the likes of WSM death metal?
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Or perhaps stoner rock? I mean that affectionately. I love Kyuss etc.
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PBP are Metallica? That’s it, I’m out! 🙂
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So are the CPI Led Zep or Black Sabbath?
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Deep Purple…
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Did I miss Mick Wallace in Wexford or would he not qualify?
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I think he most definitely should qualify. I have never met him but I know several who have, and it’s all good.
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He is, biizarrely enough, a left-wing property developer. But very genuine, including giving jobs to the GAMA workers after the strike. He’s get my 2nd preference were I living there.
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WbS, I never came back to you on that piece about the more eccentric [ahem] right-wing candidates.
I’m afraid that this task may be beyond me, given the number of independents in the field and the wealth of choice available – the Quinn Healthcare candidate, the unknown third member of Jedward, the certain ‘independent’ candidate who has at various times tied himself to the Tories, the GOP, FF, FG, Greens, Libertas and now “Fís Nua”. Where to begin?
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I got a copy of the Connaught Telegraph from home yesterday, and it has a big advert for a Fis Nua guy who is warmly endorsed by . . . Declan Ganley.
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“Fís Nua” or “New Vision”? Not the same organisation, despite having the same name…
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Pretty sure it’s the one that doesn’t have the ex-Green involved.
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That would be New Vision then. Fis Nua is the ex-Green operation, New Vision is the right wing umbrella.
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Fis Nua =Kajagoogoo
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Finian McGrath in Dub. North Central ?
He was in with FF for a period this term, and won’t be getting any votes from my house again.
I’ll not be voting for a candidate that will proably end up propping up some FG minority Government.
ULA and SF are the only viable opinions for a socialist in Dublin N.Central to be honest.
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[…] of Centre Independents polled 55145 votes around 2.5% winning six seats. (To the List posted last Monday I added in Brian Markham, Sean Connolly Farrell, Robin Wilson, Mick Wallace, Veronica Cawley and […]
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Wish I’d seen this before now as I definately would have given my vote to Seamus Sherlock in Limerick county. Was forced to vote Labour as I thought there was no other options, though I still feel dirty all over for giving them a vote!
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