“If you’re in power continuously for that long you can become very complacent – and I think the bike shed is evidence of that,” says Michael Keegan, standing at his doorway in Walkinstown.
“These kind of weird, stupid things bring down governments,” he adds, referencing the €336,000 bike shelter at Leinster House that made headlines of late as an example of excessive spending of taxpayers’ money.
“It’s kind of the last straw – the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
It is Friday evening in the southwest Dublin suburb, and Keegan has just finished speaking with his local TD Joan Collins, who is setting out on her first official canvass since the local and European elections in June.
While housing and health are constantly being raised, the Independent TD says unexpected issues often come up.
“That’s why we are out on the doors because we want to anticipate those issues so that we can respond to them in material and our political work,” she says.
With the Dáil resuming business next Wednesday and a general election looming – a date for which has yet to be announced – Collins says she has had new leaflets printed and posters designed.
“We know the election is due to be called by next March, so we will be prepared… it could go in November, that’s the rumour,” she says.
“Either way, we just have to be ready.”
First elected to Dublin South Central in 2011, Collins says she is “confident” she can retain her seat. She says there is a “get them out”, anti-Government sentiment at about three out of every five doors she knocks on during this particular canvass of Walkinstown Avenue.
Keegan, who has been living in the area for close to 20 years, says he voted for Sinn Féin four years ago but is currently “undecided” as to who would get his vote in the coming months.
“I think a lot of people the last time round voted for Sinn Féin as a protest vote, and I actually think they were lucky not to get into Government,” he says.
“I don’t think they were prepared for Government, but they haven’t showed themselves to be prepared this time round either. Some people I’ve spoken to are blaming Mary Lou, but I’m not sure; one person doesn’t make a party, do they?”
Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh topped the poll in Dublin South Central in February 2020, with almost double the quota, receiving 17,015 first preferences. He was followed by People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith, who has said she will not be standing again, and the Green Party’s Patrick Costello, with Collins taking the last seat.
The constituency is considered the most left-wing in the country, with no Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil TD. It encompasses Ballyfermot, Bluebell, Crumlin, Drimnagh, Dolphin’s Barn, Kilmainham, Kimmage, Inchicore, the Liberties, Chapelizod, Rialto and Walkinstown.
Sinn Féin has decided to run a second candidate next time – Cllr Máire Devine. Senator Mary Seery-Kearney was recently selected as Fine Gael’s candidate.
Another resident, Dolores Gough (74), says she will be voting for Collins despite giving her first preference to Fine Gael at the last general election, adding she feels “let down” by the Government.
“I’d say she [Collins] is a great fighter for the people; that’s what I’ve heard, that she would fight for people like us,” says Gough.
“I think we shouldn’t vote for any of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, because they’re doing nothing for us. They really are not doing a lot in terms of cost of living. Also for the young people, there’s no homes, and it’s terrible sad to see the young people of Ireland not being able to get a home.”
Across the city in Marino, housing (and that infamous bike shelter) are being raised with Social Democrats deputy leader and Dublin Bay North TD, Cian O’Callaghan.
“If they can build a €335,000 bike shed, they can certainly provide accommodation for people who are living in one-bedroom hotels where their children barely have room to learn how to walk and basic needs,” says Audrey O’Gorman.
“It [housing] is my only issue right now. I don’t think I could give out about anything else.”
O’Gorman explains she has been renting her home on Brian Avenue for the last 11 years with her two children, Lucas (11) and Eliana (8).
“I’m very aware that at any moment I could be homeless. I have a lovely landlord – she reassures me all the time, but it’s out of her control what her circumstances are and what happens,” she says.
O’Callaghan agrees and says “you shouldn’t have that risk or that worry at the back of your head, and you wouldn’t in most European countries where there are long-term leases”.
He adds that affordable housing is a “priority” for his party, and that the next general election could be “a chance to try and change things”.
O’Callaghan and Sinn Féin’s Denise Mitchell are the only sitting TDs in the five-seat constituency of Dublin Bay North who will be running again. Fianna Fáil’s Seán Haughey and Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton are retiring, while Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has taken his seat in the European Parliament.
Cllr Tom Brabazon will stand for Fianna Fáil in the ward that covers Beaumont, Clontarf, Coolock, Fairview, Howth, Kilbarrack, Raheny and Sutton, with Cllr Aoibhinn Tormey and Cllr Naoise Ó Muirí selected for the Fine Gael ticket.
Labour’s selection convention has yet to take place here. The party is understood to have made informal approaches to former Dublin footballer Philly McMahon, former master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Rhona Mahony and Independent Senator Averil Power about running, but was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, O’Callaghan says the Social Democrats are “election-ready”, with most of their candidates selected and material prepared.
The party leader Holly Cairns announced in June that she was four months pregnant, and that O’Callaghan would take over the leadership while she is on maternity leave.
“I’m delighted to be able to play a role and it should be something that’s just kind of normal,” he says.
“I know this will be the first time this will be happening in Irish politics… It’s really bizarre actually, that we haven’t had a female leader before giving birth during their leadership.”
O’Callaghan, who was first elected a TD in 2020, says a good day for his party would be to retain their six seats and make gains elsewhere, in particular where they had successes at the local elections.
Elaine McLoughlin, who has been living in Marino for 30 years, raises bus services and local traffic management with O’Callaghan.
She admits she hadn’t heard of O’Callaghan previously, but that he seemed “genuinely interested” in her concerns and had taken her contact details.
“If he [O’Callaghan] gets back to me, he gets brownie points,” says McLoughlin. “There’s been no one else out around here. They only come out when there’s an election.
“Previously I have only voted for those who’ve shown up consistently, and that’s irrespective of their party. I think when they are out here not looking for votes and checking in on people and providing us with updates, you are more likely to get a vote.”
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