I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday - not surprisingly - at work. I'm having quite a good time there, due in no small part to John's amiable insistence that we not go too long without tea. He grills us about America and our futures while waxing eloquent about Ireland and Irish politics...which is the exact sort of thing I've come hear to learn about. He asked me why I want to go into politics. I began to launch into my litany but, somewhere in the middle of my first predicate clause, he stopped me with something along the lines of "well, great. I've just switched the channel. You have one sentence and 10 seconds. Try again." It was a difficult exercise because, although I've thought in great depth about what I'd like to do, I haven't thought in great depth about how to condense it to great brevity. I uttered something thoroughly inadequate and began to munch contritely on my biscuit. I'll have to do better next time, I suppose.
We've been working the last few days to design a new website for the Councillor and looking around to see how others have created theirs. I haven't been a big website designer in the passed but I've been surprised at how quickly I've taken to it: there are many linkages between website design and political messaging, electoral strategy, and constituency relations...which are all things that I have thought about and have some (albeit minimal, I suppose) experience with. I've also been doing a little bit of databasing and constituent service stuff, and I must admit that the system here is far better for rapidly and uniformly processing requests than anything I've seen in the US. John seems to be quite pleased with the work we're doing, at one point even remarking that I have a "Karl Rove - like brain" for this sort of thing. I was quite flattered: I'll take the processing power as long as I an escape the shady morals.
Yesterday we drove out to the Councillor's Constituency in the Terenure-Rathfarnham area of South Dublin County. He drove us around and showed us the neighborhood. He showed us his primary school, and his parents house, and where his father is buried. He's now representing the district in which he was "born and reared" and has spent the majority of his life. He seems to have a real connection with the community, which I find to be touching and nice. We stopped for lunch at the Yellow House Pub, a sprawling, low ceilinged place covered in dark wood that's been pulling pints of Guinness since 1827. As soon as he walked in, several of the old men behind the counter greeted him boisterously and began winking at Jennifer and me (well, probably mostly Jennifer) with great impishness. Throughout the course of our lunch, several pub patrons - who all recognized John - would walk up and launch into a conversation with him. Sometimes they would pass the time of day, other times they would say "look, I was wondering if you could get this taken care of for me..." and give some request. They felt comfortable going up to their Councillor and just chatting, and they were confident that he could get the traffic signal fixed or the road lines painted for them... and he does. Observing the direct relationship between the politicians and their constituents in Ireland has been one of the most gratifying parts about being here in Ireland, and one of the strongest contrasts that I've drawn to America.
..to be continued later this evening.
(later)
I feel that this difference may be, to some extent, a function of the institutional structure of Irish Government. Unlike the United States, Ireland is not federalist. There are not "states" or governors here, just Counties (there are provinces, but there isn't a separate, province level government). There are, essentially two major levels of government: General (Parliament) and County (County Council). The only nationally elected politician is the president but, unlike in the United States, the president is only the head of state, not also the head of government. Her power is mostly symbolic. The head of government is the Taoiseach (the equivalent of the Prime Minister in most other Parliamentary Democracies, who is not a nationally-elected official. He is a TD (member of the Dail, the "lower" house of Parliament) that the Dail itself elects, not the people of Ireland. The result is that even the Taoiseach, the most powerful politician in Ireland, has a local constituency. If 2500 people in a single town didn't vote for a particular presidential candidate, it wouldn't matter. But if 2500 people in the Taoiseach's town don't vote for him...well, he's not the Taoiseach anymore because he's lost his seat in Parliament.
Ireland is bicameral, like the US, but the Senate is appointed and has little real power compared to the Dail, the House. At the end of the day, each of the members of the Dail - the holders of the power - depend for their employment on a group of people that is quite a bit smaller than the average House of Representative District in the States. All of them must remain intimately connected to their base and, of course, the same is true for members of the County Council. This is especially true because most constituencies are multi-seat districts and, with no primaries, the ballot will usually have 14 or 15 people to choose from. If you don't stay connected, you don't get the votes, and you're out of office. Without explaining the Intricacies of the Proportional, Multi-Vote (instant runoff) voting arrangements, suffice it to say that the electoral institutional arrangement allows the people of Ireland to keep their elected officials on a much shorter leash than is possible in the United States.
Anyway, after lunch in the Pub, we stepped into the local Catholic Church, which was beautiful, and then John drove us 30 seconds outside the neighborhood to the hills, from which we caught a beautiful view of the city. Dublin, though the biggest city in Ireland, is quite compact and is ringed by the beautiful Wicklow Hills, which are quickly accessible and easily visible from most parts in the city. That's why I like to ride on the top floor of the city busses: riding into work everyday I can see the mountains. The nearest mountains are far beyond eyesight from even the tallest point in DC...in Dublin, all you have to do is go upstairs.
After a brief jaunt through the hills, we descended to one of the local primary schools (apparently the largest in Ireland, with 2500 pupils) so John could cast his vote in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum (more about this in a later post) and we had coffee in the Dundrum Town Centre, a newly constructed and massive mall. I took the train back to the city centre from there, but coming from the other direction on the Green Line, rather than my customary Red Line. I alighted at Stephen's Green and wandered up the packed Grafton street and, in the space of 150 yards, saw the following street performers:
- A "mechanized" Elvis: a man painted silver on a platform doing admirably mechanized dances to The Man's songs
- A drumming troupe
- A string quarter playing a rather soulless but nevertheless charming rendition of "Danny Boy"
- A girl doing traditional Irish step dancing. The effect was somewhat minimized by her failure to wear adequate...support.
- A trio playing traditional Irish music with an accordian, flute, and guitar.
This last group was quite good, so I stayed to watch for awhile and threw some change in their hat. (At this, one of the men actually performed a little jig). I walked up the street a little bit, where I beheld something more marvelous than words can convey (see the next post for pictures of it).
Back on the other side of the Liffey, I stopped at what I have come to call "my" pub, The Flowing Tide, on account of my 4 visits to it. I finished the Charlotte Bronte I checked out from the Tallaght library while watching the heartbreaking Germany/Croatia Soccer game. Much to the disappointment of myself and the many real Germans in the Pub, Croatia managed a 2-1 score over Germany despite Germany's (I thought) more effective play for the majority of the match.
After the game I trudged home. I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before (I wanted to talk to Maria on her last night in the states because she will soon be away from regular internet, but I also had papers due at 11PM EST, 4AM Dublin time, so my 6:30 wakeup the next morning was a bit painful). I was quite fatigued, and tumbled immediately into bed without any dinner. I slept until late this morning, when I woke up and made the Ravioli and Chicken for lunch. I read and wrote for a bit, and then wandered out of the apartment with little concrete destination in mind. I discovered that my neighborhood has a lovely, large, and leafy park: Albert College Park. I had an amble around the park and, eventually, found a bench on which to sit and read for an hour or so. I got up when the chill began to set, and walked home by way of the market, where I FINALLY acquired some Early Grey tea: a week without it, despite the excellent quality of Irish Tea, has been quite difficulty. When I got home I made tea and dinner, the leftover ravioli from lunch.
And now here I sit. Tomorrow, I really WILL get up in time: I plan to go to the farmers markets and the "World Street Performing Championships" in Merrion Square. On Sunday, to Howth!
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