From my underage football days, I can say, that it’s nice to get a win -any win - even a small one. Especially, after a long, winding run of losses. Dare I say it too, it’s nice, for once, to be on the same page as two-thirds of the country. Or with 70% of my fellow residents in Galway-East as is my own particular case. Fair dues to Donegal for topping the 80% mark.
At tea-time, yesterday, I dropped into the Headford count centre for Galway-East to see if I might witness the final results. The vista that greeted me, I must admit, warmed my icy far-right heart a little. All around, ordinary people and country faces, were cruising into the final stretch of their vote counting and tallying. Faces young and old, earnestly honouring an age old tradition. The scene, a far cry from the screeching about vote fixing to be found on social media. Indeed, I felt a little guilty for doubting these people. Another technology vs reality illusion busted. A reminder too that technology is warping our minds at warp speed and to a rather larger degree than we still are willing to admit, possibly. In one of the last opinion polls in the run-up to these two constitutional referenda it showed the Yes vote 8 points ahead of the No vote - when in reality they were over thirty points behind. Illusion versus Reality.
I was the only member of the general public around when I arrived and immediately began scanning the gymnasium for eh. sandwiches and coffee and not voter fraud. My apologies about that folks. I soon located both. I let slip to one of the tally men that I was a writer and soon drew the attention of the solitary member of an Garda Siochana in situ. A brief, slightly heated interaction took place but to be honest my heart wasn’t in it and on reflection I looked like a vagrant strayed in off the street seeking shelter from the chill winds riding in on the night. And she was most likely bored of her trolley.
At the top table a crowd were gathered around a solitary laptop. Again, my suspicion antennae momentarily perked up, but alas, a roar soon indicated they were all watching the Ireland vs England rugby match on the screen. And not secretly shifting a blast of fake Yes votes into Barnadearg and Caherlistrane ballot boxes. At this time of the night, the count centre had the general air you feel after footing a fifty yard bank of turf in the bog of an early summer’s evening. Weary pride. The quiet, tired satisfaction of facing into a mountainous task in the morning and yet completing it successfully by sun-down. I knew the results before I arrived but was still glad I decided to go.
We still have a country and plenty of good people in it. I mustn’t lose sight of that as often as I do.
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I follow you: My dad said this little diddy when we were kids.
> Fair dues to Donegal for topping the 80% mark.
Donegal reminded me of my dad saying...
I'm Bill Stahl from Donegal, eats me potatoes, skins and all!
> Another technology vs reality illusion busted. A reminder too that technology is warping our minds at warp speed and to a rather larger degree than we still are willing to admit,
Never owned a cell phone. Landlines provide some small bit of legal protection for our privacy. Ma Bell here in the US is doing its part to destroy privacy by asking the California Public Utilities Commission to allow them to abandon wire phone lines and only have cell phones.
Funny those that claim to have the power want a one way mirror. Watch you and me, Privacy for them but not for thee. I say BS to that.
It is for the people you describe we resist even if they may not understand what we do in the same way the 1916 leaders were misunderstood and scorned until they were lined up by the firing squad!