An American in Ireland

Way back when I lived in New York there used to be a television ad for a women's clothes store Annie Sez: "I haven't done it yet, but I'm dying to." That's how I feel today about voting. I haven't gone to the polling station yet, but I'm looking forward to getting there. From what I've heard in the reports on the radio, I'm not the only person in Ireland who is keen to cast a ballot today.

The polls are open until 10pm tonight (5pm EST), which means that those of you in America and Canada who are interested in the outcome of today's vote may expect the result before you sit down to dinner tonight. You can expect it all you want, but you won't be getting it.

The polls close at 10pm, but the counting of votes doesn't start until tomorrow morning Irish time. It will be a number of hours before any results start to come in, so you should contain your excitement until you have had your bagel and coffee tomorrow morning.

We are nearing the end of the election campaign (February 25) and, not surprisingly, the topic of emigration is featuring fairly high on the list of political issues. The various candidates are going to do this, that and the other to stop emigration or help those who have to emigrate. Of course, for those parties not in the outgoing government, the number of people having to leave the country makes for a handy stick with which to beat the current office-holders.

To any Irish people old enough, this is familiar territory. Emigration was a political issue in the 1950s and 1980s too and many of the same arguments and promises are being offered today. However, one twist is that this time there is an awareness that it is unjust that those who are forced to leave to find work cannot vote.

And they really cannot vote.

The other night Mayor Bloomberg jokingly called us - Irish /Irish-Americans - a bunch of drunks. Some people were offended; some were outraged. As for me, I'll give him a pass. In fact, in some ways I admire his attempt at reasserting one of my favorite aspects of New York: the way two rival ethnic groups can respect each other and indulge in (understood) light-hearted stereotyping.

The context matters. The Mayor wasn't speaking at a press conference or even issuing an annoyed or angry off-the-cuff comment. He wasn't at a dinner honoring Jewish (or Italian or Russian or Hispanic) New Yorkers.

He was at I'm sure the Mayor was comfortable at such a relaxed occasion and assessed the gathering as successful, confident people proud of their Irish heritage, secure enough to take a little ribbing from someone they all know respects them. Unfortunately he was wrong.

There are still 18 days left until the people of Ireland vote for a new government, but as political campaigns go the one being run by the leader of the favorite party to lead the next government is unique. Unique to me, anyway.

Enda Kenny is the leader of the Fine Gael party and they are odds on favorites to lead the next coalition government. If they win as expected there will be volumes written about Kenny's "hide and seek" strategy.

You see, Kenny {photo} is almost unseen in this campaign. In the weeks before the election was called it was as if he'd taken a vow of silence and joined an order of cloistered monks so rarely was he seen or heard. Day after day those who serve under him were on the tv and the radio railing against the government, calling for an election and promoting Fine Gael's policies.

UPDATE below

Colleen LaRose (aka Jihad Jane) pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania court. Among the charges LaRose pleaded guilty to are conspiracy to murder a foreign target and conspiracy to support terrorists.

The word conspiracy interests me greatly because conspiracy implies more than one person and every single person she allegedly conspired with was (is?) living in Ireland at the time. LaRose apparently conspired to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Viks, who offended Muslims with his portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.

I was reading John Spain's column (here) and it occurred to me that really, we should change our name. Ireland should change its name. We should go into the nearest court and legally change the name of the country.

We should change the name of the country for so long as we're not an independent nation, but one that is in hock to the EU and IMF (mostly the EU). The so-called 'bailout' fund of €85bn ($117bn) that Ireland received from the EU/IMF back in November is no gift. It's a loan. One that has to be paid back. With interest. At a punitive interest rate.

The bailout is intended to ensure that the Irish people pay all the debts stupidly/recklessly incurred by Irish banks, who borrowed the money from stupid and reckless German banks. Yes, we are debt slaves who are being whipped into line by our EU masters in order to save the European banks. We are slaves or vassals as

We're having an election. It was supposed to be on March 11, but the Irish government couldn't even hold on that long and now election day looks like it will be February 25. Unfortunately for all those thousands of (mostly young) Irish who have been forced to leave Ireland and seek work elsewhere, the election will not include them. They are ineligible to vote.

I was listening to a news program last week, one that features a weekly slot with American (right wing) talk show host Michael Graham. When Graham innocently asked how Ireland's emigrants would vote in the upcoming election, he was shocked to learn that they have no vote. Graham noted that America allows its citizens abroad to vote by mail and that in his town - near Boston - they recently had a large news item about all the Brazilians voting there in Brazil's election. How could Ireland not offer the same to its citizens?