Posters Up!! April 24, 2019
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.trackback
Great to see the posters up this morning.
Looks like a lot more female candidates.
A lot of candidates reusing posters.
The thin posters appear more popular now too.
Any posters catch your eye this morning?
Yep. Great to see them up.
Cycled to work this morning. Need to be careful that I don’t cycle under a tram as I survey political developments on the poles.
All politics is local, so: I can confirm that the three Labour candidates in Cabra Glasnevin each have their own individual posters looking for a number one and no mention of their colleagues. Fair play, WP with local candidate Cormac Newton and Euro candidate Éilis Ryan were busy and are up on a lot of poles. SF’s new candidate Paul O’Farrell is asking for number ones round my way and number twos for Cllr McGrattan. I saw one Cllr Cieran Perry poster but didn’t notice him asking for a two for Indos4Change candidate Kelliher – even though Kelliher asks for twos for Perry on his. FG still apparently only have one candidate in the area – O’Rourke. Gannon of the SDs has his Euro posters up.
In the Nth Inner City area, I noticed the chap Flynn? who’s running as an indo (he set up the Inner City Helping Homeless charity) is happy to flout the rules and paste up posters on walls/hoardings.
And then I saw a random black and white flyer on a hoarding with a graphic of people on the march with a raised fist and the slogan: The IWW is coming. Join the One Big Union.
Lastly, on posters that catch the eye. Definitely the winner so far is Ruth Harrold of Solidarity, highlighted by your good self Iel on here recently. Harks back a bit to Soviet woman glory days. Great poster.
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Up in my area, I’m in the Rathfarnham Templeogue LEA bordering on the Firhouse Bohernabreena one, so posters from two areas on the main road.
The Labour folks have taken the tiny ‘public meeting’ stickers off their posters to reveal “Vote 1” and one of them has added a ‘Vote Local’ sticker to some of his posters.
There’s the McMahon brothers running against each other. Conor for Fine Gael and Ronan , having left Renua is running as an Independent (and reusing a lot of his 2014 posters).
John Flanagan of People Before Profit has some posters up which include the best poster of the election so far (I’ll post it up on Friday). There’s 3 other FGers, 2 FF, a Social Democrat, Rob Russell of SF, A Green and we’ll see who else appears.
It’s a pity that the boundaries were redrawn as I personally know most of the councillors in the LEA the other side of the main road. Flanagan is the only one I know in my own LEA.
Anyway going to be a good few weeks!
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Just seen a debate on FB with environmentalists saying posters should be banned. I don’t agree.
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They’re needed , if they weren’t effective they wouldn’t be used. The idea being proposed by many that Social Media be used more, is problematic for a number of reasons.
-On a practical level , it’s impossible to target a LEA with a Facebook Ad.
– Not everyone uses Social Media
– Trusting Multinational Social Media platforms with election campaigns isn’t the wisest thing.
I’d imagine in time there will be totally recyclable posters and the environmental issue will be gone.
I think the anti poster thing is part of the whole anti politics vibe.
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The anti-poster thing definitely has an anti-politics aspect to it. I think we discussed this elsewhere but personally I wouldn’t be averse to a complete ban on both posters and all paid advertising, coupled to public information displays in local areas which gave equal space to all candidates to announce their wares for all to see.
About the recyclable posters, they’d need to be weather-proof though. I look with envy at the photos on FB from fraternal parties across Europe who use cardboard posters that wouldn’t survive an Irish downpour!
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Agreed, the anti-poster stuff does have that undercurrent.
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The anti poster sentiment was around well before some had an environmental issue with posters. It’s just an added excuse now.
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+1 IEL I’m not sure if it is a genuinely environmental concern. Maybe unfair, but I’m always suspicious it’s the same types who don’t want anyone walking or children playing on the over-tended bit of grass and shrubbery in the middle of their cul-de-sacs 😉
As to the environmental concern, fair enough I suppose, if they’re non-recyclable, but it does also feed the general issue of environmentalism being reduced to some individual consumer choice issue. It’s a systemic problem, and the myth that paper straws or accumulating cotton bags in our kitchens will solve it is unhelpful at best.
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+1
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I am persuaded by the arguments that ‘the anti poster thing is part of the whole anti politics vibe.’ and ‘it does also feed the general issue of environmentalism being reduced to some individual consumer choice issue.’
Perhaps that’s why I consider the Rita Harrold poster as a powerful one: big, bold and a great image. What’s more, there are a lot of them in my area.
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Whats good too about that Rita Harrold one is that it very much stands out from the crowd
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It doesn’t help that elections are generally held at the same time of year as Tidy Towns adjudications, which is why the push to confine posters to suburban areas has arisen.
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Two (trivial) things that were new to me this election:
(a) a candidate with a nose ring (Social Democrats, Galway)
(b) a ‘sorry I missed you’ flier through the letter box with a wrapped chocolate attached to the back of it (Fine Gael, Killiney/Shankill)
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Couldn’t (b) be construed as an attempt to bribe voters?
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Mints, lollipops , air fresheners, toothpaste, wet wipes, rubber balls and more have been given out by candidates in recent times.
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Well if they want to buy me they’ll need to affix a bottle of rum and a bag of pistachios. 🙂
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I remember an FF (I presume) candidate back in the late sixties/early seventies used to drive down roads in Kilbarrack / Raheny flinging sweets into gardens and provoking grushies and fierce excitement among all the nine year olds who had no votes.
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I feel old!
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