The decision of former Independent MEP Clare Daly to run in Dublin Central in the general election was not all that surprising. Her political protege, councillor Dean Mulligan, who also operates under the Independent 4 Change banner, was already running in her former bailiwick, Dublin Fingal East, where Daly had lived for many years.
But a surprising aspect of her decision to run in Dublin Central was her announcement that she had also moved to the constituency from an address in Swords she listed when she ran for Europe earlier this year. At the launch of her campaign, she said: “I lived in the area for many years, in Glasnevin and Phibsborough in my student days, in Stoneybatter as a young worker, and now in Drumcondra.”
The address used by Daly on yesterday’s ballot paper is in Behan Square, Dublin 1. Lo and behold, this turns out to be an apartment development constructed by her political ally Mick Wallace that went into receivership in 2011 after it emerged that Wallace’s building company had not passed on VAT on sales in the complex to Revenue.
Better laureate than never?
What’s up with the next laureate for fiction? Colm Tóibín’s three-year term is due to end in a month but there has been no word of a process to choose his successor. When Tóibín and previous laureates were appointed, the selection process took several months, with bookshops, libraries, book clubs, arts organisations, poets and playwrights asked to nominate writers in advance of an expert panel choosing a winner.
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Tóibín, who excluded himself from the first competition for laureate in 2014 because he had sat on the board of the Arts Council when the idea was conceived, recently gave his final annual lecture at Visual Carlow, an arts centre. He has also been contributing a monthly blog to the Arts Council’s website during his term, most recently recounting a journey with a driverless taxi in San Francisco.
As an experiment, Tóibín asked AI [artificial intelligence] to draft a conversation between him and the non-existent taxi driver. “If the driver can be virtual, so too can the conversation,” he wrote.
Asked for clarification on his successor, the Arts Council confirmed Tóibín’s term is due to end next month and said: “The call-out for nominations for the new Laureate will commence soon.” Perhaps they have taken inspiration from Tóibín and are planning an AI laureate.
Ná bí Aosdána: artists’ body unrepresentative of Irish population
Colm Tóibín is a long-time member of Aosdána, an affiliation of 250 established artists. The Arts Council recently commissioned research into diversity at the organisation, where some members receive a yearly means-tested payment of €20,180 known as the cnuas. A questionnaire was sent to 250 Aosdána members about their ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, religion and so on but only 58 responded, a 23 per cent response rate.
The findings were unsurprising. The respondents were disproportionately over the age 65 relative to the general population and other surveys of established artists. Indeed no respondents were under 45, although the authors note that this is partly due the requirement for members to have created “a substantial body of work over a sustained career”.
It also found that women were underrepresented, at 40 per cent, compared with other surveys of artists, while 13 per cent identified as LGBTQ+, similar to other surveys in the music industry. The greatest anomaly was ethnicity, with 91 per cent from a white Irish ethnic background, much higher than the general population or other surveys of established artists.
It’s an issue the Arts Council has raised previously with Aosdána. Minutes of meetings between the two organisations show that Arts Council director Maureen Kennelly previously told the Toscaireacht, the 10-member committee that runs Aosdána, that “all aspects of the Arts Council’s work is being influenced by the new Equality, Human Rights and Diversity (ERHD) policy” and that “Aosdána should be no different”.
In response, Aosdána sought to add an additional 20 members, presumably some from more diverse background, but the suggestion didn’t win approval.
Has anyone seen Niall Blaney?
One resource that voters could use when weighing up whether to re-elect a candidate in their constituency is their attendance record in the Dáil or Seanad. The Oireachtas recently published the attendance report for the year until the dissolution of the Dáil earlier this month. The politician with the worst record didn’t get his name on the general election ballot, though. Fianna Fáil senator Niall Blaney sought the party ticket in Donegal but pulled out shortly before the selection convention.
Blaney had run unsuccessfully for Europe in the Midlands-North-West constituency, complaining during a press conference with party leader Micheál Martin that he wasn’t getting enough support from the party. More frequent trips to Leinster House might be in order if he wishes to improve relations with colleagues. Last year Blaney, who did not respond to queries, fobbed into the Seanad on only 21 occasions, even though there were 61 sitting days. And at one point, he went a full five months without showing up.
Conor Fitzgerald lodges personal injury action against IRFU
Another to add to the scrum of former rugby players taking personal injury actions against the IRFU and the provinces. Last week Conor Fitzgerald, the former Connacht fly-half who left the province at the end of the 2022-2023 season, became the latest ex-player to lodge a High Court action for damages. He is suing the IRFU, Connacht Rugby and the Galway Clinic.
David Corkery and Declan Fitzpatrick, who both played for Ireland, and Ben Marshall, who played for Leinster and Connacht, are also seeking damages from the IRFU for injuries they claim they suffered while playing the game.
At least the IRFU has fended off one tricky personal injuries lawsuit in recent years. A fan injured after being hit in the face by a rugby ball kicked into the stands during the warm-up when Ireland played New Zealand in the Aviva Stadium in November 2016 dropped her case without any settlement in 2020.
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