Young Blood in Ballymun: Sean Tyrrell

[Saoirse go Deo]

Back in October (with regular updates) Adrian Kavanagh put together a blog post listing the candidates who are contesting the local elections aged under 35:

The Younger Ones: Local Elections 2014 candidates aged between 18 and 35

It's quite interesting to see who this "next generation" of politicians are, in particular those who are independent. Kavanagh gives us the names but no detail about them. I decided to take a closer look at some and what better place to start then Ballymun, a working class community. Maybe here we will see some encouraging candidates from one of Dublin's most underprivileged areas.



Seán Tyrrell caught my eye... a bit of googling found his website: http://seantyrrell.ie/about-me/

He says about himself:

Hi my name is Seán Tyrrell, Here you can find out a bit more about me!
I am 20 years old and will be 21 at the end of February 2014. I am in my final year of my degree in Economics, politics and law in DCU. I attended St. Aidans C.B.S. for secondary school and O.L.V. for primary school. I was born and raised in Ballymun and I am a former player of Ballymun Kickhams G.A.A. I have been working part time in the constituency since I was 16 years old, while still in full time education. I also do volunteer work in the constituency with groups such as Ballymun Tidy Towns, The Reco in Ballymun and the Network of Resident Advisers (N.O.R.A) but to name a few. I am sure some of you will know me either directly or through friend / family member, and to those of you who may have never heard of me I look forward to getting to know you and hopefully working for you on the council in the future.
Why run? Growing up I’ve watched the people of this constituency trying to build a home and a good life for themselves, I’ve watched successive councils and governments give them the ‘run around’ as they tried to do this. To put it bluntly I want to help people, to use the skills and knowledge I have learned while studying Economics, Politics and Law in DCU for the benefit of the people, and push for a council that will work for the people, not against them. I want to bring some common sense to D.C.C.


What do I hope to achieve and fight for? First of all I want to state that I will be (should I get elected) there as your representative, and my priority is the issues you come to me with, some constituents have already contacted me with issues to help them with, most of which have been resolved.

He goes on, you can read more at the above link. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of actual policies beyond "I'll do what you want", but I haven't read many of his press releases yet, to be fair.

Although he has been the victim of some legal threats from the FG candidate:

DUBLIN local election candidate Noel Rock has threatened legal action against a fellow ward candidate, Sean Tyrrell, after he recently made claims regarding his income.... .... “He has made a claim that I am well-paid, I am not even full-time. I am paid €22,000 per year. It's an outrageous slur to make when I am on effectively minimum wage,” he said.

http://www.independent.ie/business/t...-29901697.html

In a follow up statement Tyrrell went on to say:

Today The news broke in the Independent, The evening Herald and the Greek Herald, that I was threatened with a solicitors letter by another candidate (Noel Rock FG) in the up coming local elections in relation to my recent press release about expenses and “Political Sacrifice”. I will reiterate that I firmly believe in a justifiable and transparent expenses and wages system for all elected reps. as opposed to the current ones being used on the council and in Leinster house.

In Politics you have to have a thick skin, something I do have, which is why I am prepared for angry constituents to vent that anger towards my fellow candidates and I simply for being politicians in the first place. If elected my job is to voice the opinions of my constituents and my own opinion on constituency matters on a public level, and transparency as to where peoples tax money is actually going is one of those issues. So I want to take this opportunity to reassure the people of Dublin North West that I will not bow to any pressure put on me by political parties or candidates, nor will I entertain any political parties or candidates who feel they can try to silence me, because they simply can not. As long as I am physically able to I will always give it 110% for the people of Dublin North West to ensure they are kept as up to date as possible and fully represented.

http://seantyrrell.ie/not-any-other-...on-any-issues/

What sort of chance does he have? I know it's not very scientific but I had a look at his campaign page on facebook to try and gauge the level of support he enjoys: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-...73733666063294

He has an impressive 2300 plus 'likes' which surely bodes well for his chances. However on closer inspection it seems that as well as interest from the "Greek Herald" he enjoyed a tremendous upsurge in support from Istanbul to the tune of thousands of 'likes' seemingly overnight late last month:



Ballymun seems to have quite an interesting electoral race.

[Seán Ryan]

He may have opted for international likes rather than national. More expensive I'd have thought, and not as persuasive as the national option lol. Then again, it's not like there's not a Ballymun - Istanbul connection

He seems kinda greasy for someone so young. Maybe it's brashness and vim, and maybe it washes off?

Nice spot Saoirse.

[C. Flower]

Back in October (with regular updates) Adrian Kavanagh put together a blog post listing the candidates who are contesting the local elections aged under 35:

The Younger Ones: Local Elections 2014 candidates aged between 18 and 35

It's quite interesting to see who this "next generation" of politicians are, in particular those who are independent. Kavanagh gives us the names but no detail about them. I decided to take a closer look at some and what better place to start then Ballymun, a working class community. Maybe here we will see some encouraging candidates from one of Dublin's most underprivileged areas.



Seán Tyrrell caught my eye... a bit of googling found his website: http://seantyrrell.ie/about-me/

He says about himself:



He goes on, you can read more at the above link. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of actual policies beyond "I'll do what you want", but I haven't read many of his press releases yet, to be fair.

Although he has been the victim of some legal threats from the FG candidate:



http://www.independent.ie/business/t...-29901697.html

In a follow up statement Tyrrell went on to say:



http://seantyrrell.ie/not-any-other-...on-any-issues/

What sort of chance does he have? I know it's not very scientific but I had a look at his campaign page on facebook to try and gauge the level of support he enjoys: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-...73733666063294

He has an impressive 2300 plus 'likes' which surely bodes well for his chances. However on closer inspection it seems that as well as interest from the "Greek Herald" he enjoyed a tremendous upsurge in support from Istanbul to the tune of thousands of 'likes' seemingly overnight late last month:



Ballymun seems to have quite an interesting electoral race.

The Turkish angle is certainly fascinating.

[Saoirse go Deo]

The Turkish angle is certainly fascinating.

Maybe I should have said "Young Turks" rather than "Young Blood"?

Can I buy likes for my Facebook Page?
No. Certain websites promise to provide large numbers of likes for your Page if you sign up and give them money. These websites typically use deceptive practices or are scams. People who like your Page this way will be less valuable to your Page because they won't necessarily have a genuine interest in what your Page is about. If Facebook's spam systems detect that your Page is connected to this type of activity, we'll place limits on your Page to prevent further violations of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

You can pay for ads and sponsored stories to promote your Page so more people will see it. This can lead to your Page getting more likes. Running ads and sponsored stories is not the same as directly purchasing likes.
You're reading the Desktop Help answer. Learn more in our other Help Centers.

https://www.facebook.com/help/281084665319172

[Saoirse go Deo]

It made tomorrows paper... Do journalists from Northside People read here?

A NORTHSIDE local election candidate has laughed off suggestions that he bought Facebook ‘likes’ to boost his online profile.

Independent candidate, Sean Tyrrell from Ballymun, says he woke up one day over the Christmas holiday to find Facebook likes for his campaign page had soared from around 300 to over 2,000 likes – and that Istanbul in Turkey was the most popular city for his followers.

The sudden surge was picked up on by political activists who took to Twitter and Facebook to query Tyrrell’s new likes in what he described as an “orchestrated campaign”

“I think people went out of their way make me ‘trend’ on Twitter,” he told Northside People. “Over Christmas I just woke up and there was an extra 2,000 likes sitting there and I just said ‘thank you very much, I’ll take that’.

“I honestly, genuinely haven’t a clue where they came from.”

http://www.dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=3181&l=

[C. Flower]

Lol!

[Apjp]

What self respecting young person can wear a suit. And worse, a suit with a tie. Greasy is right. I find it hard enough listening to Pearse Doherty or Joe Higgins when they have ties on.

My own bigotry against official eegitry aside, I think Ming Flanagan has been effective in the Dail and would like to see more people like him and others from centre-considerably left-further left who think for themselves in European, local and hopefully at some stage national politics. Joe Higgins was more effective in Brussels than Leinster House. Be interesting to see if any of these independents runs in the euros.

In Meath East meanwhile one particular ex FF National Guard member who got 11-1'200 votes in the last GE is looking like pulling a council seat. She's the wife of a local publican/ex councillor and tried to get herself co-opted into his seat, and only for the Chronicle would already be sitting pretty over in Navan. I don't feel change will happen locally anyways.

[Saoirse go Deo]

A somewhat novel defense for a politician; "I'm too stupid to have done it"

[Saoirse go Deo]

What self respecting young person can wear a suit. And worse, a suit with a tie. Greasy is right. I find it hard enough listening to Pearse Doherty or Joe Higgins when they have ties on.

My own bigotry against official eegitry aside, I think Ming Flanagan has been effective in the Dail and would like to see more people like him and others from centre-considerably left-further left who think for themselves in European, local and hopefully at some stage national politics. Joe Higgins was more effective in Brussels than Leinster House. Be interesting to see if any of these independents runs in the euros.

In Meath East meanwhile one particular ex FF National Guard member who got 11-1'200 votes in the last GE is looking like pulling a council seat. She's the wife of a local publican/ex councillor and tried to get herself co-opted into his seat, and only for the Chronicle would already be sitting pretty over in Navan. I don't feel change will happen locally anyways.

I largely agree about the suit thing, which is why I looked to a working class constituency to see if there were any encouraging candidates...

Anyone decent running in your area? Personally I will give SF the highest preference, then the various other socialist/anti austerity candidates working my way down with labour getting my lowest preference.

[Saoirse go Deo]

Turns out rabble had noticed this before I did - I'm always late to the party

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[fluffybiscuits]

Was hoping to use the Twitter feature but cannot access it at the moment. Noel Rock has said that he works about 30 hours a week for €22k a year, a silly figure for 30 hrs work a week.



http://www.independent.ie/business/t...-29901697.html

. It's an outrageous slur to make when I am on effectively minimum wage,” he said.

8.65 an hour for a 40 hour week is €17992 ...no where near min wage....

Click on the time of the tweet, or the tweet embed code via "more" on tweetdeck and you will find a number. Paste the number in betweet and it will embed.

[Saoirse go Deo]

Not saying this is the case here, but what has happened in the past is that councilors and prospective local reps are given part-time assistant or secretarial jobs in Leinster house or constituency offices, which they do not preform, and are payed from the public purse.

This acts as a top up for their councilors wage and lets them be a full time councilperson and still have lobster for dinner.

[C. Flower]

I'm loving this thread. Noel Rock FG says he will not collect expenses if elected. What does the SF candidate say about expenses ?

Poor Seán Tyrell looks foolish beyond belief.

Was hoping to use the Twitter feature but cannot access it at the moment. Noel Rock has said that he works about 30 hours a week for €22k a year, a silly figure for 30 hrs work a week.



http://www.independent.ie/business/t...-29901697.html



8.65 an hour for a 40 hour week is €17992 ...no where near min wage....

[Saoirse go Deo]

I'm loving this thread. Noel Rock FG says he will not collect expenses if elected. What does the SF candidate say about expenses ?

Poor Seán Tyrell looks foolish beyond belief.

He seems to be reveling in it (including this thread). From his website:

Over the last week or two the media and online world took an interest in Ballymun ward Independent candidate Seán Tyrrell. Tyrrell has featured in The first edition of the Northside people of 2014 for work he done with young people in the Reco youth club in Ballymun.

He has also featured in the Evening Herald, The Irish independent and even made the international scene with the Greek Herald when the press ran a story on threats of legal action made to Tyrrell by a fellow candidate, He was also a topic of discussion on politicalworld.org and was contacted by Irish election literature website who wanted to upload a copy of his current election leaflet and he will feature again in this weeks edition of the Northside People, but this time on the front Page. This weeks story is about the unusual amount of likes Tyrrell has on his Facebook page, in which he laughs off suggestions he bought likes for his page Vote Seán Tyrrell #1.

Tyrrell on all the media attention he has received lately had this to say. “Its nice to see that I’m getting noticed and that people are taking an interest in my work and what I’m all about, While some people may think I was delighted to make national and international press, which I was, I was even more delighted to have the privilege to make it into the Northside people with the wonderful young people in the Reco who were Amazing during the D-Day simulation”

In relation to the Facebook likes allegations Tyrrell said ” I’m not going to give to much away so people will still have to support a local business and pick up a copy of the Northside people but I genuinely had to laugh when it was suggested I bought the likes as A: I still don’t even know how to take a screen shot, despite various peoples best efforts and B: I didn’t even know you could buy likes until after it happened when somebody said it to me. I also want to state if I was going to do something like buying likes I’d buy local”

Tyrrell finished by saying “While the media attention is great, it gets people talking, My priority is to keep working to the best of my abilities for the people of Dublin Northwest, and with a bit of luck the media will be reporting on all the positive things to come out of the Northwest area for many years to come”.

Below is a list of links where Tyrrell has been in the media:

http://www.independent.ie/business/t...-29901697.html

http://dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=3147&l=100

http://dublinpeople.com/assets/graph...th%202014..pdf

http://irishelectionliterature.wordp...dent-ballymun/

www.politicalworld.org

http://seantyrrell.ie/tyrrell-findin...dia-spotlight/

[Seán Ryan]

I've had a gander at his website. Most of the buttons link to the same drivel.

As Saoirse said, he's saying that he'll do whatever folks want and he hasn't really moved beyond platitudes with regard to his own alleged ideas.

He did however make a reasonably decent point about his former employer who had to give up their premises, due to the upward only rental policy. The premises was then rerented for half of what was demanded from the former employer. On the other hand, he's not offered so much as a clue with regard to how he deludes himself as to how he's going to fix it.

Maybe someone should inform him that elected officials of the council are only a bunch of rubber stampers and that the real power rests with the hired and unelected help, like the city manager and the law agent.

As for helping folks, well, his spiel sounds very like gombeen parish pump crapology.

I'm all for throwing crap at the competition. But not to elevate one's self. Add to this picture his own lack of substance (I don't mean this in a personal way, I'm referring to the political) and we have a very poor performer. The picture on the right of his "about me page" makes him look like a pinhead and I think it the only thing of substance to be found on his site.

Not impressed. Not one bit.