Leopardstown in the rain.

Now that we are on the home straight, its not really possible to be "rained off"- so we took ourselves out to Leopardstown on Wednesday evening. The response was really positive. In some of the estates, we were the first canvassers to call although in fairness, a Green team, was hot on our heels. There was lots of talk of change on the doorsteps and lots of highly engaged children. In fact, that has been a really heartening aspect of this campaign: the way in which primary school children in particular, and talking about and thinking about the candidates, parties and issues in the election. One 10 year old boy whom we canvassed told us they had been discussing the election in school and he had a number of questions to put to candidates. He asked us about the problem of graffitti and how it should be tackled. Thankfully, our answer (keep cleaning it off until the perpetrators get bored, and provide adequate facilities for young people so that they don't have either the aspiration or inclination to scrawl on walls!) dovetailed with the views of this particular young man's teacher. On another doorstep, a 10 year old girl informed us that "her granny was very much in favour of Pat Rabbitte".

Bad and all as it was for us scurrying through the rain with our umbrellas aloft garnering votes, I felt humbled by the soccer coach we encountered on the green in Fernleigh coaching a bunch of kids in the lashing of rain. True grit. Making it happen for the kids.