Thing 319 Election Commentary

Okay, not that it's going to matter to you now, since it's now nearly two weeks since we had an election, but here's a link to my election commentary, which was my Thing for the day. CLICK FOR BITTERNESS AND HILARITY. The only slight problem was that i didn't think it all the way through, so you've to scroll back through the older posts to get to the start. I've set you up with the first few there, if you do want to have a look, but you'll have hit newer posts, to get up to the later posts.... that made sense in my head. I think.

I started the day bright and chirpy after yet another night shift. Straight from work finishing at eight in the morning to The Sluggery, pick up The Frenchman and then hit the road for Nenagh to cover the North Tipperary constituency for Newstalk 106-108. The Frenchman and I were roving reporters for the day.

It's not my first time covering an election. Hell it's not even my first time covering an election in North Tipp - I was here for Newstalk in 2007 too, back in my journalist days as a mouthy young man. Now I'm a mouthy slightly less young man, it's an important distinction.

Because the morning time was full of the promise of the day, and it was bright and cheerful, it was easy to be upbeat about the prospects of a day's worth of political commentary. I was looking forward to providing the funniest, yet most informative political coverage I could manage while not neglecting my Newstalk duties.

As the day wore on... well that's a different kettle of fish.

I became bitter, tired and cranky. It got dark fast, and there was no sign of a first count. The wind started to bite a little, and I'd spent the day living entirely on lucozade, kit kats and banter with The Frenchman and the RTE crowd. Funny guys and girls, but not funny enough to snap me out of my grump.

The political commentary became less "witty banter" and more "scathing attack and all around nasty assholery of a bitter twisted angry little man". According to some of the mates reading it, it made for hilarious reading. According to Top Cat it made me sound like a whiny little bollox. I tend to trust his word on such matters.

The highlight of the day came when the final count was coming in. Newstalk wanted to take it live. We'd all missed the second count, because the returning officer caught us unaware. This time he promised he wouldn't start announcing till we were ready. Cue technical difficulties. Enter: RTE. There was a lovely woman named Kathleen from RTE who stalled the entire count, to get me ready and set to go live to Newstalk.

How's that for fun? Labour's Alan Kelly and Fianna Fail's Maire Hoctor both had to wait till I was ready. Now that's a first I won't forget in a hurry. Anyway, that was the final count of the day. Home for half eleven. Town for twenty to twelve. Pints and banter ensued. They were well earned that day!