Roderic O'Gorman (Green) on youtube

thelepo

Roderic O'Gorman is he Green candidate for Dublin West, he has launched the first of his video blogs on youtube and on his blog.

He gives an update on the campaign so far and his impressions on the renewed Bertiegate.

You can view the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kJSamVSpu0
or here, http://roderic.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/election-update-video/

It is an interesting tactic that seems only really to have been taken up by Greens such as John Gormley, Ciarán Cuffe and Martin Hogan.

As far as I can tell, he is the only Dublin West candidate to use youtube.

To what extent do you think youtube can be effective in drawing in the student and youth vote? It seems to be a factor in the U.S. primaries, with Dennis Kucinich making the most use out of it.

The_Minister

Mary Harney has also used Youtube.

EDIT: linky

ballooba

Why is there suddenly posts here and on politics.ie about the same guy?

LostinBlanch

The_Minister wrote:

Mary Harney has also used Youtube.

yes she did. Here it is! Telling the truth for once. :eek:

Andrew 83

Good to see

Eric Byrne of Labour has also been doing video blogs, not sure on others.

thelepo

Back to my original question concerning this video, will youtube have any part to play or will it simply be the hacks viewing this kind of thing.
There are no real large mailing lists or community forums to get this message accross. One would assume that youtube could be used to target the student vote.

blorg

Well it's here, I'd say a lot of people will find such things through the likes of boards and it's not just hacks (I'm certainly not one.) I know I found Mary Harney's one through a link here and John Gormley's stuff through a leaflet which referenced his website.

hamsterboy

Sure haven't they eliminated the student vote by holding the election on a Thursday in the middle of exam season.
Don't think it's gonna help them anyway.....good riddance.
I think there will be an increased use of YouTube, Bebo etc in politics. They'd be mad not to utilise such a cheap, effective method of getting their message accross

blorg

I note that Mary Harney has disabled ratings and comments on her clip quite unlike Roderic O'Gorman (or the other Greens). Wonder why?

thelepo

Roderic O'Gorman has posted a new youtube video dealing with the issue of graffiti in Dublin West,
You can view it here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv9x9yA6f-g

His youtube channel is www.youtube.com/OGorman2007 and his website is www.rodericogorman.com (have a look at the blog, its quite good)

Roderic's last video has received about 580 views. Do you think that this is a good achievement for him?

Zaph

Are you Roderic O'Gorman, a relative of his or his election agent? I'm only curious because just about every post of your's I've seen has been about him.

thelepo

Hey,
No I don't work for Roderic, I just help him with te youtube stuff and I just post it here and on politics.ie
I do post on other parts of the board and on issues around the Dublin West race.

I am actually genuinely interested in what effect people think youtube has (if any) on the election.

Zaph

That's cool. I hope you didn't mind me asking, I was just curious. I'll probably be voting for him, but only because I usually vote Green anyway, not because of Youtube.

thelepo

No not at all, I'm not very covert! Yes, I've had a few chats with Roderic and he is definitely well on track for the election. I know people's first instincts would be to think that he is young and just gaining experience, but he is certainly more knowledgeable than a lot of other candidates.

One thing that Roderic has going for him, and you could only say this about the Green,Labour and Socialst parties, is that he has an ideology behind him. Labour (to a certain extent) and the socialists follow some strain of marxism and can therefore compare their proposals with the principles of marxism. Roderic and the rest of the Green party have the ideology of environmentalism beind them. People would say that this makes them a single issue party, but I have found that environmentalism is an economic policy in itself. After all, natural resources are the binding factor in any economy and society.

May I ask if you are a young voter, as I believe that the Green party will pick up a large proportion of the youth vote.

Zaph

thelepo wrote:

May I ask if you are a young voter

39 is still classed as young, isn't it?

thelepo

If it gets your vote, then yes, yes it is.
I would love to see a poll for Dublin West, as I really don't know how it's going to go.
Some people seem worried for Joe Higgins, though those people probably don't live in a Joe area. (yup, the bourgeoisie)

flurby

First - big up the YouTube idea, it makes candidates more accessible and allows us to do interesting things like link related content together on boards like this - for open debate. I've always held the ideal that the internet (and communications technology in general) would further democratise society.

Second, I live in Dublin 15 - met Roderic last night, out on his todd canvassing. I was very impressed - but I'm holding out for the announcement of the "Deal Breakers".

Finally - living in D15, check out the "related clips" - a minature railway in Sheffield that appears to have a more regular service and equivalent capacity to the Maynooth line!!! Gotta love Google

thelepo

Yes, I noticed the related videos too. Very strange, cosidering Roderic has two videos up there. John Gormley said yesterday in the brewahaha with McDowell that the next Government would be FG, Labour and the Green party. I don't know if that was a slip or not but it is a clear indication. The only ones that could save FF would be Labour, and I don't think that is going to happen. The Green Party will pick up 2 or 3 seats I would say.

John

Money Shot

I'm in the Dublin 15 constituency, and agree with a lot of the greens social policy, but less so on some economic issues. I would like to give a preference of some sort to a green candidate, but to be honest, I probably won't at this stage - why ??

Dublin 15 is one of the biggest, yet most neglected areas in Dublin. The public transport is a million miles off where it should be, it's a joke to be honest. Trying to get a young child in to a decent school is very difficult in the D15 area. Worst of all, serious crime and anti social behaviour is very high and resources to deal with it are very low, relatively speaking. The population in Blanchardstown is growing at an alarming rate - estates popping up everywhere. It has a massive population of 'young' people, and a very large population of immigrants to. No politician seems bothered about the area or the potential future problems all the above will cause. What has Roderick done to help the area ? - I have never heard tell of him before two weeks ago. I have never seen him at a public meeting. I have never received a leaflet from him until yesterday. I have never seen anything about him in any of the many local newspapers.
Are we supposed to take your word and his that he is a top candidate ? Actions speak louder than words at local level. On the other hand, most of the other candidates are pretty bad too - Brian Lenihan for example.

P.S I can't access youtube unfortunately

ciaran76

I have lived in D.15 since 1986 and have seen alot of changes in the area. Some good some bad.

As for politicans I got to some of their meetings. I would be classed as a floating type voter as I change to what suits me.

Roderic O'Gorman I have not heard of until about 2 weeks ago when his poster was put up outside on a nearby road.
I still haven't had 1 Politican to the door since the news of the election but still manage to get all the crap in my door everyday when I come home from work.

thelepo

Money shot, Ciarán,
I agree with your points, but let me just take you through what I have learned about Roderic. (I don't want to seem like an online canvasser, I'm just going to tell you myimpression of him and the work he has done).

As far as I can tell he was the first candidates to start doing the rounds, he started calling to houses in July last year. You said that you have only heard about Roderic in the last two weeks, very understandable, but Roderic has been attending public meetings (mostly on education) for quite a while now. He ran in the local elections in 2004 and picked up 666 votes.

Money shot, it's a pity you can't view youtube, as Roderic actually has another video coming out on the schools crisis and the work that he has been involved in on that front. He details the additional schools needed to meet requirements and the fact that two schools currently share the one space. I went to Castleknock Community College, so I know how it feels to be crushed into a classroom.

The video I just posted is about anti-social behaviour, particularly graffiti. Roderic plans to tackle this using ghosts (graffiti habitual offender suppression teams), http://roderic.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/press-release-use-ghosts-to-tackle-graffiti-%e2%80%93-ogorman/

He also had another idea that I quite liked, Youth cafe's. God knows there isn't much to do in d15 for young people (I'm 21, I've only just recently left the 'hanging around the shops' part of my life).

Just to reiterate, Roderic does attend his fair share of meetings, which is quite an achievement considering he is a full time postgrad in Trinity.
He's just one man as well, he has to do most of the canvassing on his own and makes the best of what he has. It's going to be hard for him o get to every single one of the 65,000 or so constituents before polling day, though he is trying! If you do get a chance to meet him you will see what I'm talking about.

He updates his blog very regularly and if you check the archives you will see thathe has been working well before the campaign started. www.rodericogorman.com

Hope that has been mildly helpful.
Any other questions, I will try to answer them or ask Roderic for you, or you can ask him yourslef rodericogorman@gmail.com

All the best,
John

marie_85

For all those who've said you've never heard of Roderic before, in all fairness, he's not on the council, he's not in the Dail. So he is very limited at the moment in the impact he can make. However for someone who does not currently hold an elected position, he is making himself well known as a hard worker throughout the constituency. He's been very outspoken on the education situation and the lack of planning in Dublin 15.

Obviously, he's not going to be able to get round to every door before the election is called, and thelepo is correct, he only has a small canvassing team because he prefers to meet people face to face rather than sending the minions out. He has been doing a lot of work though in relation to the proposed prison up near Thornton and the education crisis around the area.

/end of fangirl type rant.

giddyup

I'm in D15 and I've seen very little canvassing activity. My wife did say that Roderic was around the estate a couple of weeks back but he's the only one I've heard about. Maybe they don't want the ear-bashings as the school situation in our area is a very big issue.

thelepo

I've had quite a few to my door, namely Joe Higgins, Joan Burton, Roderic. I haven't heard a peep fom FF at all, not even a flyer, perhaps they know Lenian is a sure thing.

Varadkar doesn't stop sending stuff out, he must have a fair amount of money behind him.

For someone of modest means I think Roderic is doing quite well.

Money Shot

thelepo wrote:

He ran in the local elections in 2004 and picked up 666 votes.

I hope that is just a coincidence !

Joking aside, thanks for your considered response. I do appreciate how hard it is to get going - maybe we'll be hearing a lot more from him in the future. For the sake of D15, I hope he is somebody who really does care for the area and intends to actually work towards doing something, rather than just serving his own career ends. I will try and get around to seeing it on youtube somewhere.

If he pushes hard this last week, he could do well - there is a lot of discontent in the area with the encumbents. Brian Lenihan is 1/100 with Paddy Power on to keep his seat - which is bizarre for a lot of people in the area. Leo Varadakar is another who winds me up - he is great at self-publicity thats for sure, but it's overkill at this stage. We get leaflets from him as soon as anything happens in D15 trying to forge some sort of association with him somehow being responsible for it. I might be being cynical here, but he gets on my goat. I have a green bin now (almost full) just for Leo Varadakar spam...

thelepo

Money shot, I was planning on keeping all of the campaign literature to see how much wastage there was, I fell behind this week when a tonne of crap came through. Joan Burton supported having only one postal flyer (the one paid for by the electoral commission) per household, instead of one sent to every registered voter in the house. An post did not honour her request. Fair play to her for trying though.

Here are the two Roderic O'Gorman videos on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kJSamVSpu0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv9x9yA6f-g

AidoCQS

The Fine Gael one is better (hope I dont mess up insterting this) click on the FG

thelepo

Yes, that one was instantly favourited

ciaran76

As schools are not really an intrest to me or effect me in any way I would not have seen him as I would not attend any of these type of public meetings.

I am more intrested in the other local issues like Transport,Litter,Anti-Social activities etc etc.

Every Dublin West canidate has sent their agenda's in some form or other. All practically say the same thing. Oh I have had nothing from Joe Higgins now that I think of it.


Still that FG Leo guy seems to spam my letterbox so decided to not to vote for him or give him a very low prference as he seems to jump on whatever the issue of the day is and its all down to him when its complete or gets fixed.

thelepo

Leo is in my estate at the moment. I had a belated idea to collect all of his campaign literature and hand it back to him. I will raise your point with him.
John

thelepo

Roderic has a new video up on education in Dublin West. this is probably his most important vlog.
www.youtube.com/OGorman2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOiq60uBZg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOiq60uBZg