Age proving no barrier as Wyse vies for his late father’s seat

"Look at you, are you out of school even?"

When you’re one of the youngest local election candidates, not yet out of your teens, you’ve got to expect the odd question like that.

“I’ve finished my second year in college,” Adam Wyse replies to Molly Donnelly at her front door in Powerscourt Lawns on the eastern fringes of Waterford City.

She doesn’t seem convinced. “You’re only a baby,” she answers back.

It’s all good-natured, though, in this mature, 161-house slice of suburbia for which the word “leafy” could have been invented.

The young Fianna Fáil councillor’s handlers know this is not a Fianna Fáil house, but it’s not without hope nevertheless.

“You’re young anyway, boy, and good luck to you. We won’t forget you. I don’t vote party lines, I always vote for local people. Even though you know what my politics are.”

Adam tells her that, if elected to the newly- amalgamated Waterford City and County Council, he’ll do his best to get improvements for the area.

“That’s what we want, young men in there,” Molly adds before the canvassers make their way to the next door.

Along with the “you’re so young” comments which Adam Wyse inevitably encounters along the campaign trail, there are also many of the “I knew your Dad” variety.

That’s in reference to his late father, Gary Wyse, whose sudden death at the age of 50 last October caused huge shock and sadness across the city and whose city council seat Adam was co-opted to fill.

So while he’s standing on his own merits, he’s not completely uneducated in the ways of electoral politics.

Five years ago, when his father was elected, it was not the most propitious time to be promoting the Fianna Fáil way.

“I was 14 and I went around dropping leaflets and every now and again you’d have someone coming out and they’d be shouting at you. Even though I was young they’d still be shouting. It’s definitely better now.”

Adam’s campaign manager Aidan Keegan has seen good times and bad for the party since 1992 when he was first on the canvas.

“There’s still a little bit of anti-Fianna Fáil out there but it’s nothing like 2009 when we were in the real teeth of it. There’s an awful lot of people out there unhappy that they’re being hit with one thing after another.”

Around the lanes and avenues of Powerscourt Lawns, not far from University Hospital Waterford along the largely middle-class Dunmore Rd, the response is generally positive although some wish the young candidate well without necessarily revealing their voting intentions.

“You’re looking for votes are you,” says one woman who comes to her door. “Who are you?”

Her tone softens a bit when told of Adam’s party.

“One thing I’ll tell you — I won’t be voting for Labour and Fine Gael. They need to be taught a lesson.”

Later on, Kathleen Walsh not only pledges her vote but is delighted to be asked if she would pose for a photograph, putting smiles on the faces of the tired campaigners. “Of course I would, with a gorgeous young chap like that.”

Youth can be an advantage, sometimes.