McHugh's Miscellany: As the election dust settles and Euro sprawl spreads

As the dust settles, democracy has been exercising its imperfect muscles across the land in both the local and European elections.
The highest turnout in the Donegal County Council elections was in the Milford (63.5%) and Donegal (56.91%) districts with the lowest recorded percentage in the Letterkenny LEA at 50.81%.
And whether through default or design, 800 people spoiled their votes across the seven Donegal local electoral areas.
In the Euro sprawl, across the 15 counties, the Midlands - North West constituency turnout was 53.16%; a further indication if needed that while just about everybody in this country has an opinion about everything, just over half the voters bothered to make an actual effort to cast their vote or could it have to do with the inordinate number of boxes that needed to be filled.

ABOVE: The 27 candidates for the Midlands North West constituency required a ballot sheet of 73cms/28 inches. Photo copyright 

As we were voting in the 2024 local and European elections on Friday, it struck me that the main talking point in this constituency was the length of the ballot paper, rather than the actual candidates on it.
Twenty-seven candidates listed on a white ballot sheet that was 73 cms or 28 inches long.
It looked like a piece of wallpaper rather than a ballot sheet.
A Mayo TD described it more crudely as toilet roll.
It was an interesting topic of conversation with fellow voters in and around my local polling booth.
Everyone admitted to the confusion adding that their familiarity with some of the candidates was up there with spotting Donegal on a map of the Moon.
One who was less confused and likes a punt on the horses told me that Nina Carberry was his number one, purely on the basis that she had delivered for him in the past.
One has to presume that it was not in relation to European Parliament affairs, but on the race track.
I pondered on how long it would take each voter if they exercised their right to vote in totality across the aforementioned European ballot sheet.
And throw in the Donegal County Council preferences and you could certainly see the potential for long queues, if all candidates got a tick or rather a preference.
Indeed, at one point purely as a political experiment, I was going to give all a tick and preference, until I realised the polls closed at 10pm and quickly lost the will to survive on reaching the baker’s dozen.
There is also the small matter of why the ballots, were simply not separated into two boxes, which would have made matters much easier, but if memory serves, the logic is based simply on the fact that if a separated European box was transported direct to Castlebar and later found to have inadvertently included a Donegal Council vote, fierce shenanigans would ensue in the motherland.
Now the nearest lad or lass that can assist us here in Donegal from a geographic proximity viewpoint is Castlerea, Co Roscommon man Luke Ming Flanagan who also played a strong card for Donegal when it came to recognition of the mica crisis in Brussels - the most powerful amphitheatre in Europe.
The jockeying for position looks like it is down to the last furlong, as I write, but I hope the parochialism of local politics will not extend to the Euro winners, when they head off to Brussels and Strasbourg.

Trooper Coleman
It was still a great buzz to see Killybegs’ Seamie Coleman and Cristiano Ronaldo sharing the same pitch the other evening in the Estádio Municipal de Aveiro until he came off in the 70th minute.
The only consolation was that the Portugal goal poacher supreme scored a brace of ‘Ronaldo’ goals in a 3-0 Irish defeat.
The game itself was summed up by pundit Ronnie Whelan giving our goalie Caoimhin Kelleher Man of the Match.
Listening to Ronnie also reminded me how just old I was, as I recalled watching him in person as very young Ronnie playing in Lansdowne Road against a talented French outfit in a 1982 World Cup qualifier, which we won 3-2.