Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

Ireland is in the middle of the aftermath of a general election with Fianna Fail emerging as the dominant party, but looking to make up the numbers to form a stable government. As someone with no allegiance to any particular political party, I have to say that the whole affair was fascinating to watch – espeicially the night of the election count when the winners and losers began to emerge.

Despite being a bit of a techie, I hope that we never introduce e-voting because the drama around the country in the count centres was nail-biting for anyone with a passing interest in politics. Sitting in O’Reillys pub, everyone kept one eye glued to the television set. When it was finally announced that Michael McDowell, one of the most controversial politicians in Ireland, had lost his seat, we were all spellbound. Whatever you think of the man, I thought he went out with class by accepting the opinion of the public and then bowing out of public life.

From a communications consultant’s point of view, the most fascinating issue of the election was the issue of Bertie Ahern’s finances and his upcoming appearance at the Mahon Tribunal. I marvelled at how all the parties danced around the issue. Fine Gael and Labour steered clear of the issue after getting their fingers burned when they raised the issue previously. The only time they slipped was when Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, pointed the finger at Michael McDowell, leader of the PDs, for leaking information about the issue. As it turned out, it came back to haunt the PDs who effectively went missing one weekend prior to the vote as they sought clarity from the Taoiseach about the affair. Ultimately this backfired as transfers from their coalition partners plummeted.

From a blogger’s perspective, Damien Mulley has some great commentary on the role of the Internet in the general election. As Mulley points out, blogs didn’t have a huge influence but featured heavily in media coverage in the runup to the vote. In my mind, bloggers cemented their position in the media ecosystem in the course of the general election. In the past it was much harder for the public to bring a story to the media, but now their news and opinions feature regularly in the press.

As a medium the Internet definitely proved its worth. Silicon Republic reported that RTE recorded five million hits on election day compared with the average of just over a million visitors due to the public broadcaster’s extensive election 2007 coverage.

However Damien Mulley is right to question whether many of the politicians who suddenly began posting videos to YouTube in the runup to the election in a bid to attract the youth vote will continue in another post. Personally I don’t think politicians understood the role of YouTube. If young people are not interested in politics, don’t expect them to get very excited and vote for you because they have a Bebo page or YouTube video. It serves as a much better medium to highlight local issues to the electorate.

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