Seems like I wasn't the only one voting for Boyd Barrett

Well he nearly made it and if he had it would have been one of the few genuine surprises of the 2007 election. With 5233 first preferences (8.91% of the vote) he was in 5th place in this five seater constituency ahead of the Green Party's Ciaran Cuffe. As the counts progressed however, it became clear that although he did well on transfers from O'Broin, Quinn (and even O'Malley!) there was no way he could beat Cuffe on the transfers from the eliminated Fine Gael candidates.

Had he been elected it would have been at the expense of Cuffe who is a good TD and would have been a bad loss for the Greens. Considering the possible (although now seeming less likely) outcome to the negotiations on who will form the next government, Cuffe's victory may turn out to be vital if we we are to avoid another five years of FF/PD government.

For Boyd Barrett I fear this may have been his one real chance at election. He had a lot going for him this time - a successful local campaign to prevent a massive unwanted development on Dún Laoghaire seafront, a high profile anti Iraq war campaign and, just prior to the election, the "celebrity news" factor of him turning out to be the son of actor Sinéad Cusack who gave him up for adoption.

He is a great issues campaigner and he deserves some reward for his efforts.

Look like it's got to be Boyd Barrett in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown...

With polling day approaching it's time to work out which of the crooks is going to get my vote and how I can manage to make my vote travel down the list most effectively.

To start with we can remove Fine Gael from the list. Three grey men running. Barrett (past his sell by date), Bailey (hardest working - but only for himself) and Regan (rich man's candidate and friend of super capitalist Peter Sutherland). In any case my poor dead grandmother would turn in her grave if I went with that lot - and her having been jailed in Kilmainham by them during the Civil War.

Then there's the Progressive Democrats' candidate Fiona O'Malley. Sorry, no way.

Fianna Fáil have incumbents - Minister of Education, Mary Hanafin and Barry Andrews. Mary is intelligent and honest but I simply don't agree with her views on the running of the education system - I want to see the churches removed from the system , she (and she is a social conservative) wants them to stay. The best part of Barry Andrews is that he is the brother of comedian Dave McSavage but that's not really enough.....

Labour are running two candidates - Eamonn Gilmore a sitting TD for the last 75 years and a neighbour of mine. Almost certain to be reelected and not a bad fellow...... except that about 15 years ago he called for the resignation of my father from the chairmanship of Bord na Gaeilge. And I have a long memory..... Their other candidate is Oisin Quinn, nephew of former Labour leader Ruairi and son of zillionaire Lochlann. Seems like a decent guy and will be getting a preference.

The Greens have Ciaran "Chemical" Cuffe. Apart from his little issue of being found to have a boat load of shares in evil American corporations that he had inherited from his mother, who was a sister of Bobby Kennedy's wife, he is a good guy and will probably get the number two. He is hotly tipped to keep his seat.

The Shinners candidate is Eoin O'Broin and to be honest I know nothing about him. He hasn't got a hope in this constituency.

And finally we have Richard Boyd Barrett. Anti War, Save our seafront, People before Profit party. With a slogan like that how could you avoid voting for him? He managed to organise the biggest march in Dublin for decades in 2003 just before the fantastically successful, er, liberation of Iraq and on a more local level he prevented a massive private development of apartments on Dún Laoghaire seafront. It's interesting to note that a lot of the other candidates are claiming that they are responsible for saving the seafront but it is not true.

Anyway he's getting my number one and I've managed to convince a few others to do the same. Paddy Power are offering 11 to 1 against on his chances - maybe worth a punt?