THE posters are up and the dogs are out of the trap racing towards polling day on November 29.
Simon Harris was barely out of The Shire after asking President Michael D Baggins to dissolve the 33rd Dáil before mischief maker Willie O’Dea had his posters up the length and breadth of the Condell Road.
The bould Willie still has that legendary glint in his eye that seems to indicate that the Fianna Fáil man is in on a joke the rest of us haven’t yet twigged.
As for Simon Harris’ peppy posters with talk of ‘a new energy’, he looks as proud as punch — like a spry upstart who has just won big at the BT Young Scientist.
And as for his talk of a ‘new energy’ (a slogan he ripped whole cloth from our good friends at the Council with their ‘different kind of energy’), what he really means is a slicker campaign to dazzle the punters with smokescreens, mirrors, and the same old empty promises.
Of course, this is just how the Irish electorate likes it, if recent local election results are anything to go by.
The young Smash Hits brigade are also looking down from glitzy banners at roundabouts and junctions like the hip young cool kids they are.
Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan is aiming to join a very lonesome number of sitting female Limerick TDs. Only Jan O’Sullivan and Kathleen O’Callaghan have ever topped the charts previously out of the Treaty City.
Pouty Labour hopeful Conor Sheehan, the baby-faced heartthrob in the pack, is in fine fettle as he croons about fighting for a generation of people locked out of home ownership. Expect him singing at your doorstep any day now looking for a Christmas Number 1.
Green machine Brian Leddin looks a little dejected up on the poles and might struggle to retain his adoring female devotees after the Great WhatsApp Scandal of 2021, the bitter memory of which has followed him around since.
The people of Limerick, it would seem, have a mammoth memory, as Fine Gael candidate Maria Byrne has learned in the social media comment box of any story this reputed newspaper posts with her name in. Let them eat baked goods? Would ye please give over!
With candidates coming out of the woodwork every day on the road to November 29, the game is truly afoot.
