The new political faces aren’t given the same media coverage as the old ones

A while back, I was glancing through the Sligo Champion newspaper, and I noticed, a couple of pages in, the face of Tom MacSharry, the mayor of Sligo.

He had quite a write-up, about how he wanted to promote Sligo for the people, the community, the economy.

I quickly turned the page to find his brother’s face, Fianna Fáil Senator, Marc MacSharry, looking at me, telling me that he was planning to run in the next election.

Believe me when I say I have nothing against the MacSharrys, but I do have a problem with the same old faces, with the same old politics.

I got thinking — ‘why do all the bigger parties get so much support from our mainstream media, but the little guys, the real fighters out there, trying to get their voices heard, don’t get that support’?

All we have to do is look at the amount of exposure Lucinda Creighton and Co received — and it wasn’t just exposure.

It was also the quality of the exposure that confounded me.

A year ago, Lucinda and Co were embraced by all and last week, when they told us of their new name and their (ahem) not fully clear ‘new’ policies, they were all over the radio, the papers, and even the television.

Indeed, I hate to admit it, but I slightly yelped, very early one morning this week, when I saw Lucinda’s face on Ireland AM — I think my shock was down to the disbelief that there she was again!

And it’s an awful shame, because there are so many wonderful people and groups out there, with new, innovative approaches in tackling entrenched issues, yet we are being bombarded with the same old faces, with the same old policies.

We know where the old has taken us, we know what the old has given us — politics that do not fit, and which are not accepted in the Ireland of today.

Cáit O’ Beirne

Cnoc Na Si

Tubbercurry

Co. Sligo