Election 2011

Election fever has hit the country. Lampposts and gateways are decorated with huge posters and placards and various smiling faces look down at you all the time. Truth, honesty and integrity are recurring themes; some individuals promise so many good qualities one wonders whether they are human at all...that no-one is perfect is a common-accepted fact, yet some would-be politicians profess perfect characters and furthermore deny their actions of past months and years.

It has been said that this is the 3rd major crisis of the Irish state: the first was when Ireland was fighting for its independence from Britain, the second was the time of the Emergency and World War 2 and the third is now. Many possibilities loom before us - with principled leaders we could fight our way through the mire of depression to rise at some stage in my lifetime into a time of prosperity once again, without principled leaders we face the terrible prospect of becoming a slave country, a colonized province once again, the chattel of Europe. Irish people have a legacy of oppression, and yet a legacy of victory. The greedy arms of the Roman Empire never reached this little island that lay on the outskirts of Europe, and when that Empire fell, as it had to, Ireland preserved the tenets of civilization, lived up to its name of 'the Land of Saints and Scholars' and slowly helped a crippled Europe out of the despair of the Dark Ages. Today we remain that troublesome island - yet now it is for the shoddiness of our elected representatives that the world has an interest in us. These men who saw the quickest way of filling their own pockets as being the most important goal of their time in office have brought the country to its knees.

So what can be done? I for one am filled with a sense of disillusionment as I survey the current political prospects. My support is going to Martin Daly, an Independent Candidate who is running for election because he cares about the future of Ireland. But what can one man do? European power is not something to be treated lightly and the EU has a particular interest in the country of Ireland.

God moves in mysterious ways and He delights to use the small things of the world to confound the mighty. His ways are not our ways, and as we move to fulfill His commands and do the sometimes strange things He requires of us, there is hope in this one thing - He is in control and above all. God too is interested in Ireland, and beyond the speculations and plans of political parties, His purposes are being, and will be, worked out.

The only light in the window for those who love Ireland comes from an unshakable faith in God.