Potholes no match for financial black hole

IT’S a wet and miserable night and the wind is whipping around Kinvara in Dublin Hill, Cork, as Sinn Féin general election candidate Jonathan O’Brien and his team of about 10 canvassers trek around the sprawling estate knocking on doors and depositing leaflets.

“The feedback is positive. It’s going OK. At night time it’s harder to get people to answer the door, but in the daytime they engage with you more. The universal social charge (USC) is the big thing,” he says.

Jonathan is unfailingly polite and earnest. The father-of-four from Farranree has been on the city council since 2000 and this is the third general election he has contested. With the level of anger in the air at the moment and the national surge of Sinn Féin to 13% in the latest Red C poll, it’s clear he knows that 2011 is his big chance.