On the Eve of…

I love politics. Love elections. I remember back home in Bray sitting round our kitchen table as a student with an uncle and a lecturer of mine at UCD who was building a career for himself as an FF candidate in Wicklow – he’s now a minister in the Dail and my uncle has sadly passed away.

For 21 years now I’ve worked in Northern Ireland and have been able to see politics close at hand. Elective politics and the politics of the streets. And I’ve always voted. Always. I’ve even had the opportunity to address Northern and Southern politicians in Dublin Castle as a representative of a Loyalist community – bizarre.

Successive US Presidents have had an enormous influence here in NI so Election08 is a big one and not just for the US. This election matters to me. …but I don’t have a vote. US military flights continue to stopover in Shannon, so it affects my country…and I don’t have a vote.

But here it is: America needs change and so do we. We need change in America. We can’t afford an isolationist America any more. Its national security lies with the rest of the world not against it. Its continued prosperity lies in collaboration and relationship. Its freedom lies in laying down the politics of fear and embracing a politics of inclusion, and humility.

I’ll watch nervously tomorrow and Wednesday hoping for change.