POLLING was brisk in Tulla up until lunchtime, according to election officials Sam McCarthy and Margaret Tuohy.
“It’s really good, we’re kept going,” said Sam. “We have a number of local candidates, which brings a local interest in East Clare,” Margaret added.

There was one nice moment early in the day, which reflected the time of year. “We had a robin come in to visit us a while ago, which was really nice. We were a little bit worried that he wouldn’t find his way back out again, but he did. It’s a real sign of winter and Christmas coming,” said Sam.

John O’Malley was there to cast his vote and he said it had been an underwhelming campaign. “To be honest I didn’t take a whole lot of interest in it. When you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all to an extent. No party is going to win the election as such, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need each other now, before they’d say they’d never go in with each other.”

East Clare has numerous candidates and he said his vote was staying quite local. “If you have someone local there’s some chance if you need something doing that they’ll get it done, if there’s a pothole or if there’s trees down or something.”

A woman in her eighties walking with the aid of a crutch said she feels there is a duty to vote. “I think it’s very, very important. We fought for it for long enough and we have it now. It took our ancestors long enough to fight for it.”

She is looking forward to seeing what the outome will be over the weekend. “The campaign was interesting, hard fought. It’ll be very interesting to see what the result will be.”

The huge number of candidates on the ballot paper was a bit difficult for the voter, while she says she admires those who have the courage to put themselves forward. “It’s quite daunting when you see the number of people on the paper, to try and make sense of it. We have the ones we trust and the ones we have relied on for so many years. It is not easy in today’s world, to try and please everyone. I admire anyone who puts their name down there and who wants to fight for the betterment of all of us.”

Another female voter in Tulla said that the state of the health service was a huge issue for her. “It’s very difficult even to get an appointment with a GP. It’s the same for dentists. I had an issue recently, I broke a tooth, the nerve was exposed and they said I’d have to wait a month.”

She said that she wouldn’t vote for any of the Government parties or Sinn Féin, but her number one would be going to an independent.

Charles and Margaret Murphy were both lunchtime voters and Charles said the gap between the two parties who have dominated politics has almost totally closed. “There’s nothing really between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, they’re all the one now. Timmy Dooley is our local man, Joe Cooney is very popular, I think he’ll do.”

Leah O’Keeffe was on crutches at the polling station, where she was accompanied by her partner Denis Kennedy.
“We’re trying to get a mortgage, so it’d be housing, we’re both in education so that’ts a priority,” said Leah.

Annaghneal in the parish of Bodyke is one of the county’s smaller polling station and running the show there were Teresa O’Dwyer and Jennifer Lenihan.

The former school building had been pretty busy with voters early on, Teresa said. “We are going pretty well, we have 45 voted so far, there are 277 on the register.”

While the Clare Champion was only there for around 20 minutes, several more voters arrived during that time.
Working at polling stations is in the blood of Teresa, who has been at it for over 40 years herself. “My Dad did it in Ogonnelloe for 50 years. When he passed away I applied and I got Ogonnelloe. Then this place had nobody so they brought me out here.”

It is the same for Jennifer who was filling in for her mother Pauline and Pauline’s father had also filled the role in Annghneal.

Among the voters there this afternoon was 34 year old Matthew McGrath. When asked what the major issues were, he said, “One would be housing, another would be LGBTQ+ rights, those would be the big ones.”

Which parties most closely chime with his views? “It’s hard to know. I think Fine Gael are doing okay, not too bad. There are some I wouldn’t trust, I won’t name names, but I definitely wouldn’t trust them.”

Kay and Pat McGuinness are a retired couple who came to vote. Housing and the cost of living were amongst their top priorities. “It’s the kids really I feel sorry for, they get good wages but they have to pay a lot,” said Kay.
Had they a preferred candidate or candidates? “”It’s difficult to know who to vote for, but we’ll have to vote local,” said Pat.