‘Euros, what Euros?’ as election race fails to catch fire

WHEN the planes went into the Twin Towers on 9/11, Brian Fagan realised it was time to hightail it out of Afghanistan.

Like thousands of others in the Taliban-run state, he knew it was only a matter of time before American bombs would begin to rain down, seeking retribution.

The border with Pakistan was quickly closed, so the Mullingar man hit out cross-country, exiting into the dark and mysterious Turkmenistan. Fagan recalls those turbulent days as he sits in a Mullingar café, hours after lodging his papers to seek election as the next Dáil member for the Longford Westmeath constituency.