It’s on. After a long, seemingly endless, prelude, the general election campaign finally began this weekend with the dissolution of the 33rd Dáil by President Michael D Higgins. The three-week campaign will be intense and bitterly hard-fought, and its outcome – to be decided when Irish voters go to the polls on November 29th – will profoundly shape the country’s direction over the next five years.
Political parties spend years preparing for elections. For news publishers, too, these important moments in national life require a great deal of planning. Here at The Irish Times, we have been thinking hard about how we can provide our subscribers with the richest coverage of the election across all our platforms, whether through words on screen or on the page, in audio form or via our award-winning visual journalism.
We step back and ask ourselves how best we can reflect the state of Irish society as it faces this big decision about its future. We think about our tone of voice, about issues we should highlight, and about new ways to speak to and reflect a rapidly-changing country. Of course we think about practical questions: we allocate resources, we build new tech tools, we dream up new formats, we test for different scenarios, we commission copy in advance. We position ourselves to react quickly. And then we plan every last detail of count weekend, a logistically complex undertaking aimed at getting accurate results out as quickly as possible while providing the best real-time insights and analysis for our audience at home and across the world.
Some of the fruits of this work can already be seen on the site and the app. Our daily live story will keep you up to date with every twist and turn of the campaign, from early in the morning until late at night. Daily instalments of the Inside Politics podcast, presented by Hugh Linehan with members of our politics team, will appear in your feed every afternoon. Detailed profiles of all 43 constituencies – the candidates, the boundaries, the possible winners – are already available; take a look at this introduction by Political Correspondent Jennifer Bray. Look out for our new issue tracker and coalition-builder tools. We’ll have video explainers; on-the-canvass colour from Miriam Lord and other writers; opinion polls; focus groups; and a series of reflective pieces from our stable of opinion writers and some new voices. Refreshed homepage designs and results presentations will debut later in the campaign. At the heart of our coverage will be the work of our reporters across the country, who will tell you everything you need to know between now and the moment when the last of those 174 seats is filled.
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On irishtimes.com this weekend, we have reports on candidates’ safety concerns, on the prospects for two ex-Fine Gael Independents running in Dublin, and on early tax-and-spend promises from the main parties. In a campaign in which the cost of living and wider economic issues will figure prominently, Cliff Taylor sets the scene, while Miriam Lord has written an obituary of the 33rd Dáil, spanning everything from the Covid pandemic and Golfgate to Brexit and the Dublin riots. In his essay marking the beginning of the campaign, Fintan O’Toole reflects on why, more than a century since Independence, “the nation still feels half-built.”
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
Editor
Five Key Reads
- Can Trumpenomics work? That’s the question addressed by David McWilliams in his weekend column. The answer is partly ‘yes‘, but, McWilliams says, the story will not end well: “Ultimately, the financial markets, so effusive today celebrating the victory of Trump, will push Trumpism towards bankruptcy. For a guy who has been bankrupt many times, this should come as no surprise to the Donald.”
- Donald Trump’s return to the White House will also create difficult political choices for Ireland, according to Cliff Taylor, as economic rows spring up between the US and EU. In the end, if forced to take sides, Ireland will have to align with Europe – regardless of substantial US investment here.
- In her restaurant review this week, Corinna Hardgrave visits One Ballsbridge – a place that has seen more than its fair share of big-name casualties. “First, there was Dylan McGrath’s Shelbourne Social, followed swiftly by Richard Corrigan’s The Park Café. Now, Oliver Dunne is stepping into the breach with his latest venture, and it’s hard to say if he’ll fare any better in this sizeable, seemingly cursed location.” For now, Hardgrave says this restaurant is poised to be a hit – if it can strike the right balance.
- Crack cocaine is “around and available” in Dublin city, according to Amy Carroll, harm reduction service co-ordinator at Merchants Quay Ireland – and that’s part of the reason why the capital is experiencing an “epidemic” of the drug today. “When heroin was available, people got addicted to that. So now it’s crack. And people’s situations aren’t getting easier.” Patrick Freyne spoke to workers on the front line of addiction services in Dublin.
- Author and journalist Paul Howard writes that following the death of his dog, Humphrey, he said he would never get another. At the time, Howard wrote about his beloved pet’s death and Irish Times readers responded in their droves, insisting he would, in time, be able to love another dog. They were right. “I’m rediscovering all of the joys inherent in having a dog in your life, like waking up from an afternoon nap on the sofa to find a wet nose in your face or a set of teeth play-biting your ankle. Or discovering that, while you’ve been sleeping, they’ve mastered yet another new skill, even if it’s knocking over the kitchen bin and turning the floor into a smorgasbord.”
Friday night saw Ireland take on New Zealand on home turf in their Autumn Nations Series opener. Our sports writers have all of the latest reaction and analysis to the clash at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, including what we learned from the defeat and what the media said. You can read the full match report here.
In this week’s On the Money newsletter, Dominic Coyle is writing about mortgage relief, and the surprising revelation that tens of thousands of Irish homeowners are choosing not to seek up to €1,250 in tax relief that is sitting there waiting for them. Here’s everything you need to know. Sign up here to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox every Friday.
As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, tips for the best restaurants in our food section and all the latest in sport. There are plenty more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.
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