FG are panicking as Lowry set to storm home to victory

josephryan1989

With Lowry hoovering up the traditional Fine Gael vote in Tipperary, poor Noel Coonan, Tom Hayes and the third FG candidate Marie Murphy are fighting for the scraps. Alan Kelly is fighting for the left wing vote with rivals Mattie McGrath and SF's Seamus Morris. Fianna Fáil look set to return a candidate for the first time since the 2011 disaster with Michael Smith Jr, the son of former Minister Michael Smith likely to win a seat ahead of his party rivals Jackie Cahill and Siobhán Ambrose.

Blueshirts are perplexed that Lowry who was disgraced over his connections with Ben Dunne and further tarnished by his involvement with the awarding of Denis O'Brien's notorious Esat Digifone licence could remain the Teflon TD of Tipperary.

Lowry has aged well - the wily handsome ambitious young TD with a head of dark hair has become craggy and silver haired political fox.

The only noticeably impact the rotund and bearded Noel Coonan has made in the Dáil was a hysterical and embarrassing speech in which he compared anti-water protesters to ISIS.

Expect the Dublin jackeens to be apoplectic that the stonethrowing premierites have returned the Dark Prince of Irish politics once again!

rossmores

says a lot for the morals or lack of with the voters in that area forget the dark prince more like the robin hood of Dáil Éireann lol

bladespin

rossmores wrote: »

says a lot for the morals or lack of with the voters in that area forget the dark prince more like the robin hood of Dáil Éireann lol

Forgetting the first rule of politics there.

Look after your own and they will look after you, Lowry has been a great TD for his area, it's the rest of us he's bludgeoned.

listermint

bladespin wrote: »

Forgetting the first rule of politics there.

Look after your own and they will look after you, Lowry has been a great TD for his area, it's the rest of us he's bludgeoned.

Id be interested exactly what Lowry specifically has been a great TD for, no one has ever given real details.

I mean is it the usual, "il get that done" and fills in an applications that someone could have done themselves ?

Is it jumping into photographs on parks / schools that other Councillors lobbied for ?

Is it going to funerals and shacking hands.


What exactly has him being a TD done to benefit those that vote for him specifically or is he just a grand oul fella putting it up to the dubs...

bladespin

listermint wrote: »

What exactly has him being a TD done to benefit those that vote for him specifically or is he just a grand oul fella putting it up to the dubs...

Not sure but he's loved and that's his job.

listermint

bladespin wrote: »

Not sure but he's loved and that's his job.

No being loved his not his job. In fact its not even in the job description.

bladespin

listermint wrote: »

No being loved his not his job. In fact its not even in the job description.

Actually the first requirement for him to do anything is to be popular, he has to be elected, so yes, it's his job. It's a popularity contest at the end of the day, full stop.

I know and work with several people from his catchment and they all say the same thing, he's accessible too, ever present where most of my local TD's aren't seen from one election to another, some don't even show for the canvas, the only TD in our area who's present is the SF delegate.

Godge

josephryan1989 wrote: »

With Lowry hoovering up the traditional Fine Gael vote in Tipperary, poor Noel Coonan, Tom Hayes and the third FG candidate Marie Murphy are fighting for the scraps. Alan Kelly is fighting for the left wing vote with rivals Mattie McGrath and SF's Seamus Morris. Fianna Fáil look set to return a candidate for the first time since the 2011 disaster with Michael Smith Jr, the son of former Minister Michael Smith likely to win a seat ahead of his party rivals Jackie Cahill and Siobhán Ambrose.

Blueshirts are perplexed that Lowry who was disgraced over his connections with Ben Dunne and further tarnished by his involvement with the awarding of Denis O'Brien's notorious Esat Digifone licence could remain the Teflon TD of Tipperary.

Lowry has aged well - the wily handsome ambitious young TD with a head of dark hair has become craggy and silver haired political fox.

The only noticeably impact the rotund and bearded Noel Coonan has made in the Dáil was a hysterical and embarrassing speech in which he compared anti-water protesters to ISIS.

Expect the Dublin jackeens to be apoplectic that the stonethrowing premierites have returned the Dark Prince of Irish politics once again!

Do you have any poll evidence to back this up, or is it just off the top of your head or from feelings on the ground?

Sand

rossmores wrote: »

says a lot for the morals or lack of with the voters in that area forget the dark prince more like the robin hood of Dáil Éireann lol

Says more for the politicians that the voters cant spot the difference between Lowry and the others.

glued

Sand wrote: »

Says more for the politicians that the voters cant spot the difference between Lowry and the others.

Not really, they vote Lowry in becuase of his presence and somehow has a reputation for 'getting things done' and when you ask people what Lowry has actually done for the people of Tipperary North it amounts to buying suits for the hurlers or some other cheap publicity stunt. It's more of an indictment of the people of Tipperary North that they continue to elect a man with such a grey history.

As for Fine Gael; I think they will actually poll far better on Election Day. As someone who would have never voted for Fine Gael they are probably the best of a bad bunch and I think they will poll far better than the opinion polls suggest. There surely can't be that many idiots that buy Sinn Fein's populist economics. Can there?

Manach

On SF, their economic I've always found issue with: but then again the agenda of the statist parties to squeeze the taxpayers for the benefit of the institutions of the state is equally sorry.
As for Lowry, I'd not have specific knowledge of the character but given that FG are supporting Shatter's re-election bid after his disasterous stint in Justice then perhaps there is hope for any politician to return to the fold.

Sand

glued wrote: »

Not really, they vote Lowry in becuase of his presence and somehow has a reputation for 'getting things done' and when you ask people what Lowry has actually done for the people of Tipperary North it amounts to buying suits for the hurlers or some other cheap publicity stunt. It's more of an indictment of the people of Tipperary North that they continue to elect a man with such a grey history.

I'm not endorsing Lowry, but what exactly have any of his rivals done in the Dail or elsewhere to stand out to the people of Tipperary North?

the_pen_turner

the way I see it is that there are 2 sides to a politicians work.
the side where they get things done that people are entitled to like medical cards etc. this is the problem , politicians are wasting their time doing this . if the system wasn't so corrupt people would get what they are entitled to without their help

the other side is getting people stuff they shouldn't get like planning permission
they shouldn't be able to influence things like this

every politician needs to be corrupt to get things done because either the person isn't entitled to it or the system is stopping them getting it

the thing with Lowry is that yes he is/was a bit corrupt , he is not alone in that

he does get people what they want . my parents live in his electoral area. he has got things done locally
my father asked a few local politicians to get a local river cleaned a few years ago. the water was backing up and flooding a few houses. two local politicians didn't even know the river was in their area. one living 8 miles away .
Lowry got it put on the list with the opw. another local politician didn't even look into it because if they did they would have taken credit instead of sending a letter saying that they are too busy

I know what he is but the differences is he was caught

Markcheese

Am I missing something ? What year is it ? How many elections ago did michael lowry get booted out of finegael ,and topped the poll ever since.. nothing new really ...
Is an independant (especially a well connected former party one eg. Healy-rae, lowry ect) better able to play at being a super county counciler, because they dont have to spend their time in dublin... dont have to go on dail commitees ect . They can see and be seen localy ..

2old4dacold

My take on it from lobbying what was then 6 Tipperary TDs on a legislative issue, when Lowry was supporting FF/Green government.

Email all 6.
No answer from Healy, Coonan or Hoctor.
Generic reply from Hayes and Mattie that they would work on it.
Phone call from Lowry's constituency office to get more details.

Propaganda leaflet from Hayes, no mention of the issue.
Email or phone call most days from Lowry's office updating on negotiations with government chief whip.

Phone call from Lowry's office saying that amendments to the Bill had been agreed, that it would be announced on that evening's Six-One news, be voted on, and be passed. Announced on that evenings news. Mattie and Hoctor appear on the news claiming credit for it.

Duly voted on and passed.

More propaganda literature from Hayes and a text message wishing me a Happy Christmas every year since!

Never heard from Lowry again. He did the work, kept me informed, got the result, and never even asked for a vote. Gone on to the next issue. That's why he's 1/5 to pull the highest vote in the country.

gandalf

To be honest Lowry represents all that is wrong with National Politics in Ireland. The guy is a basically a County Councillor on steroids. He is a "pot hole fixer". Unfortunately most of the people in the Dail are "pot hole fixers".

It also speaks volumes as to those that have been chosen to run against him that they are languishing in the doldrums.

Until we change the way we elect National Politicians in this country this won't change. I still think that a list system is the way to go when electing people to the Dail. Remove personality politics and have a fixed number of consecutive terms that a politician can serve (3 would be a good figure). Professional Politicians are not needed, what we need is a good cross section of Irish Society in making national policy. Otherwise we will keep having people like Lowry and Kenny pandering to localised issues when they need to concentrate on strategic National ones.

satguy

Michael Lowry made sure Denis O'Brien's got that notorious Esat Digifone licence..

It was Lowry that helped O'Brien get his feet under the FG table,, but it was us that had to watch as the pickings from that table just got richer and richer.. Now O'Brien is so rich, he owns them,, and if Enda doesn't pull his finger Denis will sack him..

Thanks Michael,,,

oscarBravo

gandalf wrote: »

Otherwise we will keep having people like Lowry and Kenny pandering to localised issues when they need to concentrate on strategic National ones.

Seriously. Spend five minutes in Mayo, and come back to me about Kenny pandering to localised issues. My head is wrecked with all the bitching about how he has done nothing for Mayo.

gandalf

oscarBravo wrote: »

Seriously. Spend five minutes in Mayo, and come back to me about Kenny pandering to localised issues. My head is wrecked with all the bitching about how he has done nothing for Mayo.

TBH I actually think in the longer term Politicians like Lowry do more damage to the areas that they represent. They get caught up in the micro issues and don't make any input into the macro ones. Ireland from an Infrastructural point of view is totally lopsided with everything concentrated on the Eastern Seaboard around Dublin. Instead of having a National Parliament that is putting policies in place to put the infrastructure in place to disperse jobs over the country these guys are concentrating on making the visible small short term gains locally that will get them re-elected.