Text from Darragh O'Brien

chughes

Yesterday I received the following text -

"As newly appointed Sports Spokesman in Dail Eireann, Darragh O'Brien will make a positive difference to your Club, and to Sport throughout Fingal. If you agree, please give Darragh your vote & pass this text to your sporting friends. If you disagree, think about it for an hour. THEN, give Darragh your vote & pass this to your sporting friends. Thank you."

First of all, I've never had any dealings with Darragh O'Brien so I don't know how he would have my mobile phone number. I am involved with a sports club in my locality so I can only presume that someone in the club gave him my number. I hope to get to the bottom this.

As regards the text itself, I'm a bit puzzled about the "disagree" bit. Fair enough if you thought he was any good you might pass the text on but if you didn't think this, he wants me to vote for him anyway and pass on the text.

I decided to take up the offer of thinking about it for an hour and the one thing that stood out in my mind was that a Fingal sporting organization with the highest national profile has just disappeared. I'm talking about Sporting Fingal. Here was a club with close community ties throughout the Fingal area. Under Darragh O'Brien's watch, a sports club in his comstituency was allowed to fold. Allowing this to happen doesn't seem like a positive difference to me.

Getting back to the text itself, what do you think of the agree vote for me, disagree vote for me anyway premise of his message ?

GSF

My first reaction was "who is Darragh O'Brien?" I'm guessing he is one of Martin's newbies who we saw trotted out for a photocall and never heard from again. It seems they are using their "titles" just to try to save their skins.

I'd say you should report it to the data protection comissioner

gandalf

Will the first thing you should do is report him for unsolicited texts especially as it appears that he has gotten your number without your consent.

I am not sure if this covers it, but at least it is a starting point.

I would agree with you that on the watch of this Government sports and teams like Sporting Fingal have taken a back seat and I certainly would use that as a basis for allocating my vote if sport was one of my major decision points on voting.

mikemac

Hadn't heard of him before
http://www.darraghobrien.ie/index.php
His website is one of the better ones I've seen, well laid out and clear
FF logo not hidden either. He's active on twitter if you want to hit him up that way

www.comreg.ie would have info to help or can point you in the right direction

I don't see an issue with the wording of the text, marketing guff. Seems fairly standard.

Any issue here is the unsolicited text

chughes

Apologies for not saying who Darragh O'Brien is. I live in North County Dublin and he is currently a Fianna fail TD for this constituency. I obviously overestimated his national profile.

harney

chughes wrote: »

Yesterday I received the following text -

"....... & pass this to your sporting friends. Thank you."

Is this not the get out of jail free card? All he has to do is claim someone else passed it on? Or more likely, someone that knows you passed it on to you?

delta_bravo

A little off topic but the folding of Sporting Fingal was completely the fault of the club itself. Ye were bankrolled for a few years by a property developer and the council. When he pulled out the house of cards fell around him. There is nothing a TD should have done in that situation.

therecklessone

delta_bravo wrote: »

A little off topic but the folding of Sporting Fingal was completely the fault of the club itself. Ye were bankrolled for a few years by a property developer and the council. When he pulled out the house of cards fell around him. There is nothing a TD should have done in that situation.

I'd never be mistaken for a FF apologist but delta_bravo has hit the nail square on the head there.

gandalf

delta_bravo wrote: »

A little off topic but the folding of Sporting Fingal was completely the fault of the club itself. Ye were bankrolled for a few years by a property developer and the council. When he pulled out the house of cards fell around him. There is nothing a TD should have done in that situation.

Maybe so but to canvass people based on the support of sport when the club the OP supported had just folded shows how ham fisted the whole canvassing for FF has become.

When you add in the fact that there may be a breach of Data Protection then it is obvious that they are panicking in the extreme.

Corsendonk

chughes wrote: »

Yesterday I received the following text -

"As newly appointed Sports Spokesman in Dail Eireann, Darragh O'Brien will make a positive difference to your Club, and to Sport throughout Fingal. If you agree, please give Darragh your vote & pass this text to your sporting friends. If you disagree, think about it for an hour. THEN, give Darragh your vote & pass this to your sporting friends. Thank you."

First of all, I've never had any dealings with Darragh O'Brien so I don't know how he would have my mobile phone number. I am involved with a sports club in my locality so I can only presume that someone in the club gave him my number. I hope to get to the bottom this.

As regards the text itself, I'm a bit puzzled about the "disagree" bit. Fair enough if you thought he was any good you might pass the text on but if you didn't think this, he wants me to vote for him anyway and pass on the text.

I decided to take up the offer of thinking about it for an hour and the one thing that stood out in my mind was that a Fingal sporting organization with the highest national profile has just disappeared. I'm talking about Sporting Fingal. Here was a club with close community ties throughout the Fingal area. Under Darragh O'Brien's watch, a sports club in his comstituency was allowed to fold. Allowing this to happen doesn't seem like a positive difference to me.

Getting back to the text itself, what do you think of the agree vote for me, disagree vote for me anyway premise of his message ?

Sounds like more of an abuse by the club your attached with, I know most GAA clubs etc use text messaging to keep members informed of games, meetings etc and how else would they know you were a sports fan. I would contact the data protection commissioner and the governing body in Ireland of the sporting organisation your club is attached to so they can start a full investigation of your club.

Data Protection Commissioner Press Release

The Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes, has written to political parties to caution them about communicating with individuals using SMS (text), e-mail or phone in the forthcoming General Election. He advises that they abide by the following guidelines:



Do not attempt to obtain or use contact information from third parties Avoid sending electoral messages to persons other than those – such as party members – who can reasonably be assumed to consent to receipt of such messages


The Data Protection Acts cater for written communications with the electorate by providing that the restrictions on direct marketing do not apply to direct mailing carried out in the course of political activities by a political party or its members, or a candidate for elective political office. This permits candidates to send letters and leaflets to anyone on the Register of Electors.

Darragh O'Brien did secure funding for the national cricket stadium in Malahide.

randomhuman

chughes wrote: »

Getting back to the text itself, what do you think of the agree vote for me, disagree vote for me anyway premise of his message ?

I'd say it's supposed to be a joke. But the real joke is the party he's running for. Ba-dum-tish.

orpheus

From Politics.ie -

"I saw O'Brien arriving at an estate to canvass today in his 7 series BMW with his friend, who was driving a porsche. I think it's safe to say he isn't feeling the cuts that the rest of the population are suffering."

http://www.politics.ie/elections/139179-dublin-north-fianna-fail-wipeout-17.html#post3583496

upmeath

GSF wrote: »

I'm guessing he is one of Martin's newbies who we saw trotted out for a photocall and never heard from again.

Yep, him and Averdil Powder in anyways. These clowns weren't even elected representatives when FF started showing them off as the new spokesperson for X, Y and Z.

nesf

orpheus wrote: »

From Politics.ie -

"I saw O'Brien arriving at an estate to canvass today in his 7 series BMW with his friend, who was driving a porsche. I think it's safe to say he isn't feeling the cuts that the rest of the population are suffering."

http://www.politics.ie/elections/139179-dublin-north-fianna-fail-wipeout-17.html#post3583496

I'd say that's made up, he'd have to be an unbelievable muppet to actually go around canvassing in a 7 series in the current climate.

Inquitus

Darragh O'Brien does little or nothing for his constituency, his running mate Kennedy at least seems to do something on local issues. If there is to be a FF candidate elected from Dublin North, hopefully it's not Darragh "The missing TD" O'Brien.

Spidermany

Inquitus wrote: »

Darragh O'Brien does little or nothing for his constituency, his running mate Kennedy at least seems to do something on local issues. If there is to be a FF candidate elected from Dublin North, hopefully it's not Darragh "The missing TD" O'Brien.

I'm in no way a FF, but Darragh has been very active in local issues. for instance, way back when the viaduct in Malahide collapsed he was very active in organising CIE buses for school runs. He's been actively involved in planning issues for a lot of local NS. He's very involved in scouting issues in the area.

I'm still not going to vote for him but it's unfair to say he's been missing, and unlike another FF in the constituency he's not trying to hide what party he's from.

I thought the text was very funny, very tongue in cheek.

TheDoc

He is for the Swords area and he is probably one of the only politicians I'd bother voting for, unfortunately he is FF and is on the wrong ticket but he has done some brilliant work throughout the area.

Most of his greatest achievements and dealings have been through schools and employment in the Swords region, but he has also provided some great sporting amenities in the area for teens and younger with skate parks, all weather pitches and small local playgrounds.

Literally the only politican I'd have any trust in to get anything done. He was also a good influence in getting companies like Stream to setup in the area, who now employ over 500 people in the Swords area.

I wouldn't be suprised if sporting clubs in the area were passing his text, he has done ALOT of great work and secured alot of good funding to clubs in the area and they are well partial to him and the work he does.

And me saying hed be my only vote goes along way, in that I don't care for politics, and I'm simply just not bothering to vote on Friday

orpheus

nesf wrote: »

I'd say that's made up, he'd have to be an unbelievable muppet to actually go around canvassing in a 7 series in the current climate.

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it were true. Someone on twitter from Swords claimed her parking spot had been blocked by two giant Mercs owned by Alan Farrell's (FG) reps who, when questioned on it, claimed they were leafleting for Tom Kelleher (Lab). There's no shortage of arseholes out there.

Spidermany

orpheus wrote: »

I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it were true. Someone on twitter from Swords claimed her parking spot had been blocked by two giant Mercs owned by Alan Farrell's (FG) reps who, when questioned on it, claimed they were leafleting for Tom Kelleher (Lab). There's no shortage of arseholes out there.

Oh well then it must be gospel

orpheus

Spidermany wrote: »

Oh well then it must be gospel

Everything on twitter is true - didn't you know? Unlike here of course.. where even this guy is probably lying about his texts from Darragh O' Brien. Such filthy tactics from the other parties, unlike squeaky clean Fianna Fáil.

Corsendonk

orpheus wrote: »

Everything on twitter is true - didn't you know? Unlike here of course.. where even this guy is probably lying about his texts from Darragh O' Brien. Such filthy tactics from the other parties, unlike squeaky clean Fianna Fáil.

Amazing all these low post accounts posting in the politics forum in recent weeks:D Sling enough mud and it will stick.

kilns

Its great to have a celeb running in your area though

Fratton Fred

O

chughes wrote: »

Apologies for not saying who Darragh O'Brien is. I live in North County Dublin and he is currently a Fianna fail TD for this constituency. I obviously overestimated his national profile.

thanks for that. I was wondering how an overweight comedian from Bray was involved ed in north Dublin sport.

As for the text, if you signed up for a service, you may have agreed for your number to be used in this way.

orpheus

Corsendonk wrote: »

Amazing all these low post accounts posting in the politics forum in recent weeks:D Sling enough mud and it will stick.

It is, isn't it? People feeling energised by politics is totally amazing, especially coming up to an election. It's remarkable, really. And, like, politics is on the tv and radio all day too - what a strange world, aye? And sure, on top of that, boards.ie seem to have this "online poll" that they've been advertising all over the place to get people to vote, so yeah it is TOTALLY MAD that people are signing up to boards or using an old account to vote and or read what people are saying about the various parties / candidates on the old General Election board. I mean, the mind boggles.

dsmythy

One day he tags himself and Sporting Fingal in a Facebook page. The next he covers the old club's sign outside their former headquarters with giant election posters. Zero respect.

crackity

Firstly, any text or phonecall that goes out from Darragh's office are sent to people who have contacted him in the past few years. Some of the more enthusiastic supporters may have sent that on to their own phonebook.

Secondly, Darragh shares a Toyota Avensis with his wife. That is a fact.

Lastly, I'm very far away from being a Fianna Fáil voter but I have voted for Darragh in the past and will be again(although its been harder to come to that decision this time round, due to party issues). There will understandably be an anti-FF backlash in this election but I firmly believe Darragh doesn't deserve to be a victim of it.

Whoever said he does nothing in the area needs to do some research.

Corsendonk

orpheus wrote: »

It is, isn't it? People feeling energised by politics is totally amazing, especially coming up to an election. It's remarkable, really. And, like, politics is on the tv and radio all day too - what a strange world, aye? And sure, on top of that, boards.ie seem to have this "online poll" that they've been advertising all over the place to get people to vote, so yeah it is TOTALLY MAD that people are signing up to boards or using an old account to vote and or read what people are saying about the various parties / candidates on the old General Election board. I mean, the mind boggles.

Are you being sarcastic? Maybe more people should have showed an interest in politics before the country went down the drain rather than the sudden interest now thats its cool to be an ameuter political theorist or economist.