The latest news on the Irish General Election

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Lucinda Creighton, Fine Gael's spokeswoman on equality issues again slammed same sex marriages

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God bless optimism – Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin believes his party can win a seat in each and every one of the 43 Dail constituencies in Friday’s General Election.

The opinion polls state otherwise – Fianna Fail average less than 20 seats in most polls – but Martin was sticking to his guns in an interview with Thursday’s Irish Independent.

“Having travelled the country, there’s a strong support structure across the country,” claimed Martin.
“People are going to change from election to election in quite substantial numbers. Fine Gael had their nadir in 2002, they went so low there was only one way to come - back up.

“I’m very confident we have the capacity to rebound.”

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Enda Kenny is the most talked about leader on Twitter with Gerry Adams second, Eamon Gilmore third, Micheal Martin fourth and John Gormley  a distant fifth.

An analysis of 20,665 tweets relating to the party leaders showed over 50% referred to Kenny with Adams on 23%, Gilmore on 9%, Martin on 8% and Gormley last on 6%.

Sentiment towards Kenny and Martin is largely negative, towards Adams and Gormley it is slightly negative and towards Gilmore it is neutral.

Kenny generated over 3,000 Tweets on Wednesday, the troubled Lucinda Creighton came in second on 1.409 and youngster Dylan Haskins, running as an independent in Dublin and just 23, came in fifth.

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The young people of Ireland intend to vote on their future on Friday according to a poll from the website www.thespunout.ie which predicts that only 6% of voters not going to exercise their democratic right.
Sinn Fein emerged as the most popular party amongst the youngsters polled with 32% of the vote. Labour were next on 17%, Fine Gael came in with 16% support and Fianna Fail managed a paltry 6%.
Even the United Left Alliance polled more than that with 8% support amongst the nation’s youth. The Greens recorded just 3%.

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Cute move by outgoing Minister Eamon O Cuiv whose English name will appear on the ballot papers as Cuiv – and surnames beginning with C appear further up the paper than those beginning with O!
He’s now fourth from the top of the ballot paper in Galway West as opposed to fourth from the bottom but insists it is all above board and normal.

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The Greens proved gullible when photographers persuaded party leader John Gormley and a number of his candidates to pose for a photograph on Grafton Street – in front of a shop window plastered with posters which read ‘Closing down –final week in business’. Only in Ireland ……

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Dail wannabe Catherine Yore, a Councilor running for Fine Gael in Meath West, has been voted the ‘hottest’ candidate in the General Election in a poll amongst 18 to 25 year-olds for the Ladbrokes betting site. Fianna Fail’s Louth candidate James Carroll was second in the poll.

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