“I am a county councillor, a very public man To benefit the people I'll do everything I can; In all my waking moments for their welfare I will scheme And in the arms of Morpheus of improvements I will dream. A local legislator and a man of high renown, I am the county councillor, the greatest man in town.”

The above is called the county councillor's song and was first printed in the Leinster Leader newspaper on May 1st, 1900. It is also on the very first page of a new book about local elections in Ireland called “All Politics is Local”. It is by Liam Weeks and Aodh Quinlivan, who are lecturers in politics in Cork.

For someone who is interested in Politics, as I am, it makes for an interesting read. On the front cover, Harry McGee of the Irish Times describes the book as “an indispensable history, guide and primer on local elections in Ireland”. Whilst I have good time for McGee, I wouldn't agree with him that the book is “indispensable”, but, having said that, not a bad read.

We are told that the average candidate at a general election is more likely to be male, older, better educated, middle class and wealthier than the average voter. But what of the profile of the local election candidate, I hear you say. Well, this book reckons there are about eight different types of candidate. First off, is the aspirant, someone not that interested in local office, but who sees it as a useful route to national politics. Second is the local broker, someone looking to represent and fight for the interests of his or her local community. Third is the self-explanatory, the policy maker. Fourth is the lobbyist, a candidate running to promote the cause of an interest group. Fifth is the activist, an individual who enjoys politics and likes to devote their time to it. Sixth is the loyalist, someone not particularly keen on electoral office, but runs because of a party request. Seventh is the protector, they run because of familial links to a politician, either to maintain a tradition of a family representation or to 'protect' a local seat when a relative transfers to the national arena. Eighth is the dissident, their motivation stems from their falling out with an organisation over an issue, be it a party or a local community group. Outside of these eight categories is the maverick, their presence in the electoral contest is unpredictable and can be a product of idiosyncratic factors.

Now, no doubt some of you reading this could come up with a few more categories that might more accurately pigeon-hole some of the candidates, but for now, we'll leave that to peoples' own imaginations. There are lots of statistics in the book about electoral performance at local elections from 1974 to 2004. No, I'm not going to bore you with lots of figures, but I will just highlight some basic trends. 1974 was the year of the highest turnout,at 68%, with 1979 next on 67%. Turnout in Roscommon those two years was 76% and 77% respectively. 1999 was a very low turnout at 39.9%. Roscommon was at 36.8% that year. Four years ago saw a jump again to 60%, with Roscommon at 69%.

Okay, that's it with the percentages!! Ballaghaderreen gets a mention twice in the book, once as one of the six local election areas in Roscommon. Of course, there are currently just five as Ballaghaderreen and Castlerea have merged and it's now called Castlerea. How come Ballagh had 4 seats and Castlerea had 3, they put the two together to get 7 and called it Castlerea! Some people did suggest that a previous constituency comprising the two towns was called Castlerea and that's why it got that name. I would have thought that in that case, it must surely be our turn now! But, c'est la vie!

The other mention comes as the two lecturers talk about groups and candidates getting mobilised over certain issues. It goes on to say that “because of the frequent election of hospital candidates in Roscommon, this has come to be known in some quarters as 'the Roscommon factor'. This is still very much in evidence as Independents won six of twenty six council seats in Roscommon in 2004, with one candidate, John Kelly, winning more votes than the sum total of the three Fianna Fail candidates in the Ballaghaderreen constituency”. Getting away from the book, there seems to be great excitement about these up-coming elections, the locals and the Europeans and indeed the two by-elections in Dublin. I have a feeling that voter turnout will be quite high again this time around. There appears to be more awareness amongst people about things political lately and I think the candidates, all of them, deserve applause for this. There are lots of times when we can criticise those involved in politics and I would be one of the first in line to do that. However, it does take no little amount of nerve to put your name forward for election. Candidates run the risk of being told exactly where to go, on the doorstep and also face potential humiliation when the votes are counted. So whatever one might feel is a particular candidates motivating factor, we should nonetheless recognise the risk or flip side involved.

Still on the locals, a woman in Ballagh was able to tell me exactly who I voted for in the last local elections! Now for ye! She went on to say that she didn't need proof as she was never as sure of anything in her life. I volunteered to her that, if truth be told, I didn't vote for anyone in the last local elections as I was two days too late submitting my postal vote application. She then told me who I would have voted for if indeed I had voted! Guilty for what I might have done, had I done it! Ya can't win, can ya?

Anyways, that's it for this month and indeed that's it, full stop! I have decided that this article for the Ballagh Advertiser is to be my last. To those who enjoyed the articles for what they were, a bit of craic, I say, thanks a million. To those who weren't at all impressed, well, you'll hardly have got this far down the page, will you? Thanks to Micheal Frain and his staff for tolerating me, when always submitting articles at the very last minute! Best of luck to all of you for the remainder of 2009 and beyond.

Noel D. Walsh.