No voter is an island

SOME people will do anything for a vote ... including slogging around an island with just six people on the electoral register.

First, the mainland-based politician is forced to get into a shaky cable car for a 200-metre trip across the sea, looking at a drop below which would frighten even the bravest soul especially in a gale.

Once on Dursey Island, known as the "last outpost of County Cork" it's often a real footslog to get around. There are a few elderly cars. But there's no tar on the roads and sheep are likely to jump out in front of you at every turn. This can prove especially dicey if a woolly-back causes you to swerve along a dirt-track just inches from a sheer drop into the Atlantic ocean.

The people of Dursey, which is four miles long and a mile wide, take their democratic rights seriously.

"Canvassing the island may not earn you extra votes, but not doing so will mean you'll certainly lose them," said Cllr Noel Harrington.

Not all the locals were at home when the FG candidate came calling. Kathleen Healy, who has lived on the island for 60 years was however. She remembers when it had more than 100 inhabitants. The ruins of old stone houses dotted around this inhospitable yet beautiful landscape are testimony to that. Many of those remaining don't have electricity but rely on generators.

She's delighted to see the 33-year-old councillor and they have a chat. He hoped he'd be the first to canvass her, but his face drops slightly when she says: "I'm sure Crowley came before." That's a reference to FF's Danny Crowley who's also contesting a seat in the Bantry electoral area.

Mrs Healy is playing her cards close to her chest and not saying who she's voting for. "I'll definitely go to vote, if somebody can take me," she says.

The polling booth is a mile up the road, and it's probably like no other in the country. It's an uninhabited cottage with a boarded up window. But a presiding officer will open it on Friday. A pay phone situated in the garden has long since lost its dialling tone, so if there's a case of personation he may have difficulty contacting the gardaí.

"There's little chance of that on this island. Sure everybody knows everybody else," jokes Mr Harrington.

A few miles up the road he meets resident Eddie Sheehan. Mr Crowley has beaten him to it again and the young councillor's face drops a bit on hearing the news. He probably feels like Scott after hearing he's been beaten to the South Pole.

But he soon brightens up considerably. "I gave you a number two the last time, Noel. But I'll give you a number one now," says Mr Sheehan.

The politician tries to find another man further up the island, but he's not home. One of his canvassers reminds him that if they go any further west they'll be looking for votes in George W Bush land. Next stop is the US, although nobody knows how far it is. That's because some over-zealous tourist probably nicked the distance signs which were outside the cable car station. One remains, it says Moscow is 3,310km to the east.

On the way back Mr Harrington meets another islander as he waits for the cable car to take him to the mainland. Michael Joe Lynch, 62, has also been canvassed by Mr Crowley. "I voted all my life and I'll vote this time. But I won't say which way," he said.

It's taken Mr Harrington more than two hours to get around the island. He's met three people and is assured of one vote. "Imagine if I was living in Carrigaline, how many houses I could have done in that time," he says. The cable car sways on the way back and we are told it sometimes carries cows and sheep back and forth. It's unlikely any of us would want to be in it with a cow who's afraid of heights.

Transporting people and livestock is all part of a day's work to cable car operator Paddy Sheehan.

Fortunately, there have never been any accidents, but if it breaks down the car will have to be hand-winched in. That can take a couple of hours. It was opened in 1969 by then-Taoiseach Jack Lynch. "You can take up to six people in the cable car. You can also take a cow or around 10 sheep. It takes 15 minutes for a return trip," Paddy says helpfully.

Mr Harrington promises to make a return trip. Because if he squeezes in by one vote he's going back to say thanks to Eddie Sheehan.