Rónán Mullen tops poll and re-elected to Senate

BarryD2 · 01-04-2020 9:04pm

Salary Negotiator wrote: »

It’s not just NUIG (which is Galway) it’s all the NUI colleges.

I graduated from NUI Galway in 2004 and this is the first time I’ve actually voted in a Seanad election.

I’ve 2 brothers who are also NUI graduates and I don’t think either of them voted this time (at least).

Sorry my typo which I realised on rereading. But still it'd be interesting see figures of how many are on this NUI voting register and how relative that is to the NUI graduate population as a whole.

Somewhere above, I think 34% turnout of this NUI electorate was mentioned. But is that electorate a small self selecting set of a further set of graduates. Who in turn are a small subset of the Irish population as a whole.

If that's the case, I suppose easy to see how some individuals who wouldn't have a hope in a more representative electorate can manipulate it to top polls like this.

alan partridge aha · 01-04-2020 9:05pm

Huntergonzo wrote: »

Forget the UK, we're talking about Ireland here.

Again I consider myself lucky that my mother was able to access a necessary abortion, which she almost certainly would not have been if the 8th was in place.

Would you have preferred if she wasn't able to access this abortion?

It was on the horizon if the 8th was not put in place.

Water John · 01-04-2020 9:06pm

I don't mind people having different personalities, some people can be abrupt but that wouldn't put me off. He's just umpleasant and I wouldn't vote for someone like him, no matter what their political views.

Huntergonzo · 01-04-2020 9:09pm

alan partridge aha wrote: »

It was on the horizon if the 8th was not put in place.

Hmmmm, doesn't actually answer my question, but I doubt it will be answered so I digress.

Salary Negotiator · 01-04-2020 9:11pm

BarryD2 wrote: »

Sorry my typo which I realised on rereading. But still it'd be interesting see figures of how many are on this NUI voting register and how relative that is to the NUI graduate population as a whole.

Somewhere above, I think 34% turnout of this NUI electorate was mentioned. But is that electorate a small self selecting set of a further set of graduates. Who in turn are a small subset of the Irish population as a whole.

If that's the case, I suppose easy to see how some individuals who wouldn't have a hope in a more representative electorate can manipulate it to top polls like this.

Yeah, it’s just those graduates that have registered to vote which could be a very small subset of all graduates.

And Mullen was the stand out candidate for anyone who is conservative. A lot of the other candidates actually had very similar backgrounds, viewpoints and policies (from what I received in the post) so they would have cannibalised each other’s votes leaving Mullen to top the poll.

Huntergonzo · 01-04-2020 9:13pm

Water John wrote: »

I don't mind people having different personalities, some people can be abrupt but that wouldn't put me off. He's just umpleasant and I wouldn't vote for someone like him, no matter what their political views.

Same as that, for example I voted to repeal the 8th but I wouldn't have a lot of time for some of the politicians or campaigners on the repeal side.

Some of them would drive you to drink!

Iodine1 · 01-04-2020 11:05pm

Salary Negotiator wrote: »

Yeah, it’s just those graduates that have registered to vote which could be a very small subset of all graduates.

if I remember correctly all NUI graduates are invited to register on qualifying. Vote is only by post so it's easy to vote.

Also the NUI only have a few seats, can't remember exactly how many. Other seats are filled by a number of other interest groups such as county councillors, trade unions and others. They're not necessarily graduates. And government has 11 seats, so fair to say it is representative but just selected in a different way.

Water John · 01-04-2020 11:13pm

NUI and Trinity have 3 seats each. There were 19 candidates in the NUI ballot paper. I suspect that the voting % of graduates is really low, and Mullen and his backers spotted it as an elected seat that could be worked on. I suspect they organised, within their groupings, for all graduate members to register.
AFAIK, the last time it was revealed in the subsequent disclosures that Mullen had a massive amount of funding.

Eric Cartman · 01-04-2020 11:16pm

Water John wrote: »

NUI and Trinity have 3 seats each. There were 19 candidates in the NUI ballot paper. I suspect that the voting % of graduates is really low, and Mullen and his backers spotted it as an elected seat that could be worked on. I suspect they organised, within their groupings, for all graduate members to register.
AFAIK, the last time it was revealed in the subsequent disclosures that Mullen had a massive amount of funding.

3 times...
or could it be that his work as a senator that doesn't cross his catholic beliefs is quite good and aside from a tiny handful of issues that he has little impact on that he is capable to do his job.

Water John · 01-04-2020 11:17pm

Mullen doesn't do anything outside his core belief issues.

mikeym · 01-04-2020 11:18pm

We had the golden chance to scrap the Seanad and we didnt.

Congratulations to those who got elected and I hope ye have a great time on the Gravy Train while we suffer on during these hard times.

Rodney Bathgate · 01-04-2020 11:19pm

Water John wrote: »

Mullen doesn't do anything outside his core belief issues.

Same for Bacik, but I suppose her core belief issues tie in with yours so that isn’t a problem for you.

Dr. Bre · 01-04-2020 11:20pm

Good luck whoever you are

Geuze · 01-04-2020 11:27pm

BarryD2 wrote: »

One presumes the graduates of the National University of Ireland are reasonably well educated and informed of such matters, so how on earth could they elect him top of the poll, indeed how could they elect him fullstop.

The only possible explanations I can think of are a) graduates of the National University of Ireland are far more conservative than the rest of society and/ or more likely b) only the religious conservative graduates bother voting.

Anyone else have an idea?

Yes we are reasonably well educated, thank you.

Several of my friends, who work in 3rd-level education, voted for him.

They have no connection whatsoever to religion/Maynooth, etc.

You might call them "conservative", I don't think such labels are that helpful.

I am delighted that he is elected, although I don't know much about his actual policies.

The reason I am delighted is because I don't like the many, many vocal people on Twitter and elsewhere who targeted him.

These people are SJW / into identity politics / victimhood / happy-clappy politics.

When the silent majority speaks, they are aghast.

I see them today, at a loss to how he topped the poll.

I am the opposite - I can't believe anybody would vote for Coppinger and her ilk.

Nigel Fairservice · 01-04-2020 11:27pm

Iodine1 wrote: »

if I remember correctly all NUI graduates are invited to register on qualifying. Vote is only by post so it's easy to vote.

Also the NUI only have a few seats, can't remember exactly how many. Other seats are filled by a number of other interest groups such as county councillors, trade unions and others. They're not necessarily graduates. And government has 11 seats, so fair to say it is representative but just selected in a different way.

They hand out the voting registration forms at graduation. I'd say most people don't bother with it, at least not at graduation time.

Geuze · 01-04-2020 11:29pm

Water John wrote: »

NUI and Trinity have 3 seats each. There were 19 candidates in the NUI ballot paper. .

Previously there were 30 chasing the 3 seats, in 2016?

This time 19 for 3 seats.

But practically all of the 19 were:

SJW / sociology lecturers / community activists / etc.

Nobody like Padraig O Ceidigh / Norris / Feargal Quinn / etc.

Even though there were 19 candidates, i struggled to choose even three prefs.

Geuze · 01-04-2020 11:30pm

uptherebels wrote: »

No, he is being "attacked" for being a far right conservative, that wants to impose his views on others. Plenty of Catholics are pro choice for example.

Is he far right?

I suspect he is against tax cuts / lower taxes/

Now, I don't know for sure, but I suspect he is for more social spending?

Geuze · 01-04-2020 11:32pm

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

I am a graduate of NUI ...i find it hard to know when the voting is ..how to go about it ..they don't make it easy plus i was actually social distancing this year so i wouldn't have anyway.

And yes a lot of NUI graduates ..would be a bit more conservative.

Why don't you register?

http://www.nui.ie/elections/seanad-register.asp

Water John · 01-04-2020 11:35pm

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

Same for Bacik, but I suppose her core belief issues tie in with yours so that isn’t a problem for you.

Ah Bacik is a neighbour. She hails from mid Cork. And no she wouldn't get a no 1 from me.

Geuze · 01-04-2020 11:36pm

BarryD2 wrote: »

Sorry my typo which I realised on rereading. But still it'd be interesting see figures of how many are on this NUI voting register and how relative that is to the NUI graduate population as a whole.

Somewhere above, I think 34% turnout of this NUI electorate was mentioned. But is that electorate a small self selecting set of a further set of graduates. Who in turn are a small subset of the Irish population as a whole.

If that's the case, I suppose easy to see how some individuals who wouldn't have a hope in a more representative electorate can manipulate it to top polls like this.

http://www.nui.ie/elections/seanadelection2020/Results/Count1ResultsSE2020.pdf

Electorate = 112,216
Valid poll = 38,000 approx

Salary Negotiator · 01-04-2020 11:47pm

Geuze wrote: »

Previously there were 30 chasing the 3 seats, in 2016?

This time 19 for 3 seats.

But practically all of the 19 were:

SJW / sociology lecturers / community activists / etc.

Nobody like Padraig O Ceidigh / Norris / Feargal Quinn / etc.

Even though there were 19 candidates, i struggled to choose even three prefs.

I was the same, I knew who I was my number 1 and my number 19 but I found most of the rest to be very similar.

A very uninspired bunch.

padd b1975 · 02-04-2020 1:24am

Water John wrote: »

Mullen doesn't do anything outside his core belief issues.

Just like Ruth Coppinger so.

Ficheall · 02-04-2020 1:28am

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

It good to hear other opinions even if you don't agree with very much they say

Someone obviously hasn't tried to wade through all the unsubstantiated bullcrap in the coronavirus threads..

Yellow_Fern · 02-04-2020 8:53am

Best wishes to him and other winners.

Mortelaro · 02-04-2020 9:32am

GLaDOS wrote: »

Only 34% turnout I read. A lot of people just don't care about the Seanad.

Its a postal vote in the middle of the current crisis making a usually low turn out lower
I voted number one for Ruth Coppinger by the way, despite disagreeing with a lot of her policies but I like her as a person and she does a lot of good work behind the scenes genuinely helping people out

BarryD2 · 02-04-2020 9:54am

Geuze wrote: »

http://www.nui.ie/elections/seanadelection2020/Results/Count1ResultsSE2020.pdf

Electorate = 112,216
Valid poll = 38,000 approx

Yes, I saw that later on. So he got c 9,000 votes, approx 1 in 4 of the valid poll or about 8% of the entire registered NUI electorate.

I guess the question then is how many graduates of NUI are entitled to be on that register? I think UCD quotes about 280,000 alumni and they likely are the biggest. So say we estimate 600,000 alumni across the various NUI institutions, Mullen in this case got about 1.5% of the potential electorate.

Given abt 30,000 is annual death rate in Ireland, over 50 years say that would be 1.5 million - so you could say that 600,000 alumni represents a total population of abt 6 million? Abt 1 in 10 are graduates? Sounds high?

On that basis, Mullen topped the poll on abt 0.0015% of the possible no of citizens over 50 years.

Hmm.. I suppose that gives some sort of measure, if imperfect!

alan partridge aha · 02-04-2020 11:50am

BarryD2 wrote: »

Yes, I saw that later on. So he got c 9,000 votes, approx 1 in 4 of the valid poll or about 8% of the entire registered NUI electorate.

I guess the question then is how many graduates of NUI are entitled to be on that register? I think UCD quotes about 280,000 alumni and they likely are the biggest. So say we estimate 600,000 alumni across the various NUI institutions, Mullen in this case got about 1.5% of the potential electorate.

Given abt 30,000 is annual death rate in Ireland, over 50 years say that would be 1.5 million - so you could say that 600,000 alumni represents a total population of abt 6 million? Abt 1 in 10 are graduates? Sounds high?

On that basis, Mullen topped the poll on abt 0.0015% of the possible no of citizens over 50 years.

Hmm.. I suppose that gives some sort of measure, if imperfect!

He topped the poll next, Ruthy may look for a new job.

osarusan · 02-04-2020 11:57am

I think he's a clown with some pretty weird views, but he got in, so either people want those views represented, or else he just played the game better than others. People can say it's undemocratic (and it is) but everybody knows the rules before it starts.

I can't say I've heard a single thing about him since the abortion referendum, and before that, the SSM referendum. I could say the same about any other senator too, I don't think I could name more than 5 off the top of my head.

The worst thing about the Seanad (for me) is how the big parties use it as a consolation prize to keep politicians warm who failed to get elected as a TD.

Thelonious Monk · 02-04-2020 12:10pm

The guy is a total oddball weirdo. I can't believe we're paying him a ridiculous salary for doing basically nothing. But sure we voted to keep this farce.

Water John · 02-04-2020 12:14pm

I think he went some way to training in the priesthood. I've found in life that many who do that have very trenchant views and believe everyone else should think likewise, whatever their views.

Snow Garden · 02-04-2020 12:20pm

It disgusts me that he keeps getting elected. He is a vile man imho. He is a consistent liar too.

How's the Seanad reform going Fine Gael??? Total waste of money.

granturismo · 02-04-2020 12:25pm

Water John wrote: »

I think he went some way to training in the priesthood. ...

I dont think he went to a seminary. He did a post grad in journalism, lectured in Blanch IoT, worked as press secretary for the Dublin Archdiocese, qualified as a barrister. I'm not a fan of his, there were no stand out candidates on the NUI panel for me.

He had the benefit of being one of the only sitting senators and had a reasonable public profile.

collywobble7 · 02-04-2020 12:31pm

BarryD2 wrote:

The only possible explanations I can think of are a) graduates of the National University of Ireland are far more conservative than the rest of society and/ or more likely b) only the religious conservative graduates bother voting.

Man doesn't agree with killing babies ...hence man is bad..I'm not sure I get your logic

Edgware · 02-04-2020 12:34pm

Having being shown the road by the wise people of Dublin West it is good to see the intelligentsia voters do the same to ex Deputy Coppinger.
We have enough loopers feeding out of the trough without her getting her head in.

blackwhite · 02-04-2020 2:48pm

Mullen's continual re-election is an example of vote and candidate management by the religious right.

There's never a competing candidate that shares his platform, so he's sure not to split the St Pat's vote or the rest of the pro-life, anti-marriage equality, hardcore Catholic vote.

Yellow_Fern · 02-04-2020 2:49pm

Water John wrote: »

I think he went some way to training in the priesthood. I've found in life that many who do that have very trenchant views and believe everyone else should think likewise, whatever their views.

In my neck of the woods ex seminarians tend to be very ilreligious and non orthodox if religious but I wouldn't want to generalise too much.

Fann Linn · 02-04-2020 6:44pm

Timmy Dooley gone.Kaboom.

elperello · 02-04-2020 7:05pm

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

The guy is a total oddball weirdo. I can't believe we're paying him a ridiculous salary for doing basically nothing. But sure we voted to keep this farce.

I didn't vote for him but the he got elected, end of story.

He is as entitled to the 60k pa as any other person elected.

Not sure having an upper house needs to be a farce. Reform is a better option.

alan partridge aha · 02-04-2020 7:19pm

Fann Linn wrote: »

Timmy Dooley gone.Kaboom.

Ah Dimmy Tooley.

Pherekydes · 02-04-2020 11:50pm

collywobble7 wrote: »

Man doesn't agree with killing babies ...hence man is bad..I'm not sure I get your logic

And who does agree with killing babies?

AllForIt · 03-04-2020 12:04am

I wouldn't consider myself a right winger but I have time for some right wingers like David Quinn for example.

Mullen on the other hand I find hard to listen to. He's so aloof and that puts me off.

Yellow_Fern · 03-04-2020 10:43am

AllForIt wrote: »

I wouldn't consider myself a right winger but I have time for some right wingers like David Quinn for example.

Mullen on the other hand I find hard to listen to. He's so aloof and that puts me off.

He isnt as charismatic as Quinn so I know what you mean but his arguments are not patronising or pompous. I recall him being slammed for allegedly smiling during an abortion hearing. The most insincere form of hatch job journalism. Not a peep about the inhumanity of people jostling in joy in Collins Barracks after the repeal passed. One rule for them, another for us.

Quantum Erasure · 03-04-2020 10:50am

Pherekydes wrote: »

And who does agree with killing babies?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Killing Babies

keano_afc · 03-04-2020 12:00pm

I'm delighted Mullen got elected again. He takes an incredible amount of abuse from those who accuse him of intolerance.

I saw the video Coppinger made urging people not to vote for him. Imagine if the roles were reversed and Mullen did that. We'd have every quango up in arms and the Journal would be running article after article about it. Seeing her kicked out on her arse for the second time in space of two months is glorious.

AllForIt · 03-04-2020 9:48pm

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

He isnt as charismatic as Quinn so I know what you mean but his arguments are not patronising or pompous. I recall him being slammed for allegedly smiling during an abortion hearing. The most insincere form of hatch job journalism. Not a peep about the inhumanity of people jostling in joy in Collins Barracks after the repeal passed. One rule for them, another for us.

I don't have that much experience of him to be fair but I do recall him saying once 'ppl are voting for xxx because they think it's totally right-on '. I don't recall which issue but that is certainly a patronizing comment if ever there was one and it wasn't even an argument. Plus, he always talks in a somewhat hysterical manner as if he's feeling 'i can't believe I have to say this you stupid people'. And I'm not even criticizing any of his individuals opinions, it's his manner I find unattractive.

Edgware · 04-04-2020 12:07pm

keano_afc wrote: »

I'm delighted Mullen got elected again. He takes an incredible amount of abuse from those who accuse him of intolerance.

I saw the video Coppinger made urging people not to vote for him. Imagine if the roles were reversed and Mullen did that. We'd have every quango up in arms and the Journal would be running article after article about it. Seeing her kicked out on her arse for the second time in space of two months is glorious.

Indeed. We wont have to listen to her whining.

Annasopra · 05-04-2020 12:29am

BarryD2 wrote: »

http://www.nui.ie/about/structure.asp

UCD, UCC, UCG etc? Graduates of these surely would vastly outnumber Maynooth seminarians.

You dont automatically get registered to vote as a graduate

Annasopra · 05-04-2020 12:34am

donkeykong5 wrote: »

Ronan Mullen is absolutely nothing like David Norris.

Ah you never know

Geuze · 05-04-2020 12:37am

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

I recall him being slammed for allegedly smiling during an abortion hearing. The most insincere form of hatch job journalism. Not a peep about the inhumanity of people jostling in joy in Collins Barracks after the repeal passed. One rule for them, another for us.

My mother still can't get over this.

They had a party to celebrate abortion!!!!

uck51js9zml2yt · 05-04-2020 12:49am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

An undemocratic, yuppy, mickey mouse institution.

Which we democratically voted on keeping.

Rónán Mullen tops poll and re-elected to Senate

Comments