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Dublin, 2019 Leah Farrell

'You can't be the only one without': Politicians' love-hate relationship with election posters

Earlier this week posters began springing up across the country as we draw closer to the local and European elections.

EVERY ELECTION IN Ireland is accompanied with the same debate about election posters – they’re an eyesore, they’re too expensive, they’re bad for the environment – but year after year nothing changes.

With more politicians backing calls for a cap on the number of posters a candidate is allowed to use, might this be the year that Ireland finally changes its approach? 

Don’t get your hopes up. 

The Journal caught up with a number of political parties and local election candidates to get a sense of their approach to posters this year. 

While many have supported the idea of a cap and the introduction of designated areas for posters, most still view them as a necessary part of the democratic process.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Most of the candidates The Journal spoke to have reused their posters from previous elections and some individual candidates have said they are using less.

A spokesperson for the Green Party said there has been no strategic effort from its party HQ this year to reduce the number of election posters used but noted that some candidates might themselves be choosing to use less.

Overall, given that the party is running a record number of candidates (over 125), it’s unlikely that the total number would be down on previous elections.

The spokesperson added that most Green candidates reuse posters from previous elections. 

Michael Pidgeon, a Green Party councillor for Dublin’s South West Inner City told The Journal that he hasn’t printed any new posters for this campaign and has instead reused the same ones from the last local elections in 2019. 

In total, Pidgeon said he has put up around 250 posters so far and will likely put up another 150 to 200. 

He’s of the view that there are far too many posters used in general, but that they are a necessary evil.

“I would support measures to reduce their number or limit them to specific areas or junctions, but I do think having some posters is a good thing.

“They show clearly that an election is happening and who’s running. We should be visibly trumpeting that an election is coming, and they’re very effective for that,” he said.

He added however that this could be achieved with “well under half” the number of posters that are currently used. 

‘They’ve almost targets’

Fianna Fáil county councillor in Monaghan, Aoife McCooey shared this sentiment and said she believes a cap on posters is needed.

McCooey was a first-time candidate in 2019 and this year has also chosen to reuse her existing posters. 

“It was five years ago but I haven’t changed that much,” she said. 

McCooey said this year she has around 50 posters up and hopes to put up around 20 more.

“Going into my second election they’re less important, but if all the other candidates have them you can’t be the one who doesn’t,” she said. 

“In an ideal world there would be a designated zone in a village or town so they aren’t just littered everywhere,” McCooey added and pointed to the town of Castleblaney as an example.

McCooey also made the point that she didn’t want to put up as many posters this year because she’s had so many defaced in the past. 

“They’ve almost targets. It’s sort of put me off posters,” she said.

Because of this, she’s chosen this year to put them up higher where they are less likely to be vandalised. This decision has meant that she isn’t vying for “prime space” with other candidates either. 

Not too far from McCooey, longstanding Fine Gael Cavan county councillor Val Smith is also reusing his previous posters and has put up about 50 this year.

Smith told The Journal that if it were up to him there would be no posters at all, but he does acknowledge that they are useful for first-time candidates.

“For established candidates, you don’t need to put your face on a poll for people to know who you are,” he said.

Back in Dublin, Labour councillor for Pembroke on Dublin City Council, Dermot Lacey has been a long time advocate for a cap on posters.  

This year, Lacey has put up his usual 200-300 posters.

He says they play an important role in highlighting the election but that there should be a limit of 200 per candidate.

Lacey also believes that Councils should be responsible for taking posters down but that candidates should have to pay for this service.

“There’s also the cost factor. That impacts on people who don’t have money. So that inhibits people from entering the contest,” Lacey said. 

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s director for elections Pearse Doherty told The Journal that similar to the Green Party there has been no centralised decision to reduce poster use. 

He said however that in his electoral area in Donegal, there are definitely fewer posters going up.

Doherty said some of this comes down to candidates starting to spend more money on social media advertising and less on posters.

“Last year was the first year I had paid advertisements on social media so your budgets are reallocated that way,” Doherty said. 

He added that people simply don’t want to see towns and villages covered in posters.

“You’re still going to have posters. Obviously for new candidates they’re extremely important,” Doherty said.

“They’ll continue to have a role, but given social media and environmental concerns they will play a less prominent role in future elections.”

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    Mute Linda
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    May 27th 2017, 5:06 PM

    Kodi boxes you say? I’ll have a look,
    thanks Journal!

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    Mute Government Sachs
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    May 27th 2017, 7:30 PM

    @Linda: you don’t need one. A phone, laptop, PC or tablet will suffice. You can even get 1080 pocket projector with kodi installed.

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    Mute Philip Mckenna
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    May 27th 2017, 8:22 PM

    @Government Sachs: or stick kodi/iptv on your smart TV

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    Mute Government Sachs
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    May 28th 2017, 11:12 AM

    @Philip Mckenna: you don’t need to buy anything is my point.

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    Mute Martin Flood
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    May 27th 2017, 5:05 PM

    I bought one and promptly cancelled my cable subscription. They’re fantastic!

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    Mute Brown Boots
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    May 27th 2017, 5:12 PM

    @Martin Flood: thanks Martin, I’ll drop by this evening to watch the Kel Brook fight. Then I’ll grass you up on Monday.

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    Mute Government Sachs
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    May 27th 2017, 7:31 PM

    @Martin Flood: In the US they call that ‘cutting the cord’

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    Mute dB O'Neill
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    May 27th 2017, 7:40 PM

    Lads if ye ruin Kodi for me I won’t be responsible for my actions.

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    Mute Ivan Enoughofit
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    May 27th 2017, 5:20 PM

    Kodi is perfectly legal . No such thing as a kodi box ,it’s an android box that runs kodi ,that in turn has streaming apps loaded on to the kodi platform to give access to premium content.
    Will never be able to stop free streaming sites and if Sky would stop ripping Customer off would be no need to access these sites

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    Mute Daniel
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    May 27th 2017, 5:26 PM

    @Ivan Enoughofit: I think the illegal side was f things is the fact they are ‘Pre Loaded’ with illegal content sharing. Nothing illegal about buying a Raspberry Pi, Nothing illegal about installing Kodi, nothing illegal about using a proxy. What’s illegal is using the sites that deliver the content, and if a device is being sold with this already to go and enabled, that’s illegal.

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    Mute Donal Martin
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    May 27th 2017, 7:01 PM

    @Daniel: well that kind of a silly thing to say. Your internet is sold with this already to go and enabled

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    Mute Permo Dermo
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    May 27th 2017, 7:04 PM

    @Daniel: i think there is a loophole that allows you to stream content but not download as that is illegal

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    Mute Darren Sheils
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    May 27th 2017, 7:59 PM

    @permo dermo no that loophole was recently closed in a court ruling

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    Mute Celtic_Horizon
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    May 27th 2017, 8:03 PM

    @Permo Dermo: The EU recently made it illegal to stream as well.

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    Mute Pauliebhoy
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    May 27th 2017, 10:48 PM

    @Celtic_Horizon: but not to receive streams

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    Mute OU812
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    May 27th 2017, 5:56 PM

    The journal, adverts, done deal are all owned by the same company.

    Quick search on adverts for Kodi – http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/q_kodi/

    Quick search on Done Deal – https://www.donedeal.ie/all?words=kodi&area=Ireland&campaign=14

    Hello Pot, this is the kettle, you’re black…

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    Mute Remington
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    May 27th 2017, 5:17 PM

    Kodi boxes ? There is no such a thing. These are Android boxes. Kodi is an app which can be installed on your phone and even on tv running Android. Are you suggesting those should be banned as well? Check your facts before you write something Rob.

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    Mute Daniel
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    May 27th 2017, 5:28 PM

    @Remington: I think they are suggesting pre-loaded devices are to be banned. Devices that have the software such as Exodus already installed. That would be illegal.

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    Mute Remington
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    May 27th 2017, 5:44 PM

    @Daniel: I get your point but one the other hand your laptop comes preloaded with web browser which allows you to download illegal content. Also as far as I am aware streaming content is not illegal as you are not saving any data on your device. What’s illegal is providing the stream.

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    Mute Matty Kineven
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    May 27th 2017, 5:08 PM

    Didn’t even know you could buy stuff on Facebook…. hmm.. did I just get suckered by some stealthy advertising….

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    Mute David Hennigan
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    May 27th 2017, 5:12 PM

    Okay, calling a media player (and that’s what Jodi is) a piracy enabling device is dumb. Should we all delete Windows Media Player from our Windows computers or ban Plex. If you have a problem with streaming services, go after the streaming services, not a media player.

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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    May 27th 2017, 5:16 PM

    Kodi has shut down.

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    Mute David Hennigan
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    May 27th 2017, 5:20 PM

    @ray.farrelly: how can open source software ‘shut down’? What does this statement mean?

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    Mute Daniel
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    May 27th 2017, 5:24 PM

    @ray.farrelly: What do you mean ‘Kodi has Shutdown’? I just downloaded it?

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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    May 27th 2017, 5:44 PM

    I read it on google.

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    Mute @PadNyl
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    May 27th 2017, 5:50 PM

    @ray.farrelly: link

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    Mute Remington
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    May 27th 2017, 5:53 PM

    @ray.farrelly: what are you on about. Not only it is available on Google play to download but I am watching it as I am typing it.

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    Mute Hello there friend
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    May 27th 2017, 6:06 PM

    @Remington: the Internet is now shut down.

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    Mute Brendan Keegan
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    May 28th 2017, 7:10 AM

    SKY deserve what they get. Robbing people to give footballers and their creepy agents millions while ordinary people are living on the streets. Kodi cannot be shut down without closing the internet.

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    Mute lez ferguson
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    May 27th 2017, 6:35 PM

    Trust the journal to get it arseways.

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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    May 27th 2017, 6:53 PM

    Why not mention that these wicked boxes are on sale on Donedeal and Adverts ?

    Looks very strange that you picked Facebook marketplace!

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    Mute @PadNyl
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    May 27th 2017, 5:47 PM

    Thanks for the free advertising

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    Mute Free comment ratings
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    May 27th 2017, 7:18 PM

    I see we all became legal experts overnight.

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    Mute LIAM BYRNE
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    May 27th 2017, 5:49 PM

    Kodi is not the problem it is people trying to make money by selling so called fully loaded boxes. You just have to look online to see that people are been ripped off when they buy these so called fully loaded boxes. This is not Kodi’s fault they do not supply fully loaded boxes and the software that they do supply is not fully loaded, they don’t supply plugin’s to watch pirate content. You can download Kodi and use it on many devices and operating systems. Kodi is not the problem.

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    Mute Wurley Burgoh
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    May 27th 2017, 11:55 PM

    Very surprising comments, some downright brash.

    I have complete package from you know who, all sports/movies/usual channels for €113 per month (includes free telephone + rewindable tv)

    I can sleep easy at night anyway lads.

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    Mute Brendan Keegan
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    May 28th 2017, 7:13 AM

    @Wurley Burgoh: If you are fool enough and have the money. The people using streaming sleep easy to.It not illegal.

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    Mute Sean Nonutts
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    May 27th 2017, 8:00 PM

    i have a sony android tv in which sony makes kodi available as an app for the tv, seems that sony have no problem with streaming films etc in fact they facilitate it!

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    Mute Sean Nonutts
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    May 27th 2017, 8:14 PM

    “The boxes are often tweaked to give customers access to pirate TV ”

    anybody know how i can get this channel? :-)

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    Mute Government Sachs
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    May 27th 2017, 7:27 PM

    The Internet enables piracy.

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