Unfortunately Alan was not successful in his election bid and is very disappointed to no longer be representing the people of the Borris Electoral area.  Alan however would like to thank his many supporters who voted for him at the election and especially thank those who actively campaigned on his behalf and assisted in any way during the run up to the election.  He continues to work as your local Green Party representative and is still involved in many voluntary groups.

Tags: Alan Price, Borris, election, Green Party

I hope that you enjoy these pictures from week 3 of Alan’s campaign, they are a small snapshot of what it is like in the run up to the local elections!  Minister Trevor Sargent and Deputy Mary White joined Alan on the campaign trail last Monday and had a busy time visiting schools in Kildavin, Killmyshall and Ballymurphy as well as checking out the new playground in Borris and a great community garden on Bog Lane (also in Borris) which has been set up by local residents on land sited between two of their houses.  Trevor and Mary were very generous with their time and I think that all the constituients they met in their travels appreciated the time to ask the Minister a couple of questions.  A short break was taken during the afternoon at Colemans of Ballymurphy and a welcome drink enjoyed before everyone was out and about canvassing and meeting locals once more.

This afternoon Alan participated in a radio interview on KCLR where he went head to head with Independent candidate Charlie Nolan and if any of you caught the programme I am sure you will agree he did us proud.

NB Please contact Nicola if you have ANY free time over the weekend and any day next week.  We take delivery of 5000 folded A3 flyers this afternoon and need to letterbox them to every house in the electoral area before next Thursday evening!

Tags: Alan Price, Borris, Canvassing, electoral area, Mary White, Trevor Sargent

 Cllr Price welcomes victory for local democracy with approval of County Development Plan

At the final County Council meeting of the current 5 year term the County Development Plan 2009 – 2015 was ratified.

A fine example of democracy in action was shown during the development of this plan when ‘Friends of Killedmond’ made a number of submissions with regard to the zoning of their townsland. In the now old plan the area was zoned a Settlement allowing for the possible building of housing developments. This area has only a Church of Ireland and so did not fulfil the criteria for settlement status therefore this group wished to have the area reverted back to its original rural status. The community lobbied their local Councillors who supported the change and at the council meeting in March the matter was debated and carried by a slim margin of one vote. After further public consultation a considerable number of submissions in support of the change were received and at last Thursday’s meeting this rural status was ratified by Council.

Cllr Price stated that this is good example of where local people can bring about chance in their area through the mechanism of lobbying local councillors and making submissions on the County Development Plan during the consultation process. It is often easy to criticise the way our local council system works however individuals can help influence to the process. The key point is that if you want change to happen get involved, and of course vote in competent local representatives who will listen to your views and work for you.

Tags: Alan Price, Cllr Alan Price, councillors, county Development Plan, Killedmond, lobbying, local representatives, process, submissions

On Sunday, John Murray and Cian McCormac from RTE met up with Alan, Mary and our team of canvassers in the middle of Borris town to get a flavour of what canvassing as a rural Green Party candidate is really like!  The interview was broadcast on ‘Morning Ireland’ today so please click here if you would like to link through and have a listen.  When on the ‘Morning Ireland’ site you will need to click the link ‘John Murray gauges the political temperature away from Leinster House by sampling opinion in South Tipperary’ under the heading Elections 2009 to hear the interview.

Weather aside, we have had a very busy and interesting weekend canvassing.  A large group including Richenda, Mike, Eddie, Helena, John T, Robert, Martin and Mary joined up with us so that we could meet as many people in the greater Borris electoral area as possible.  Every night on our maps we highlight the roads covered for that day and it is great to see the progress visually as we steadily are covering various areas of the constituency! 

Tags: Alan, canvassers, Canvassing, Cian McCormac, Cllr Alan Price, constituency, Deputy Mary White, elections, interview, John Murray, Mary White, Morning Ireland, RTE

Thanks to John T, John B, and Martin L for all their help yesterday with canvassing and putting up more of Alan’s election posters.  Response has been quite positive on the doorsteps although in the more rural parts of the constitiuency Alan’s profile is not as well known as in the towns.  We really need to get as many people out canvassing as possible this weekend so if you have any spare time please don’t forget to contact Nicola!  Tomorrow morning Alan has his appointment to officially register as a local election candidate and in the afternoon and the evening we will be out and about in the Ballymurphy area.  Please join us if you have a free hour or two.

Tags: Alan, Alan Price, canvas, Canvassing, Cllr Alan Price, election, elections, Local Election, local elections

We have had a busy and exciting start to our canvassing campaign.  Thanks to everyone who has already joined in the action, we are now out and about every single day and will be doing so right up until the date of the election itself.  Please, please, please volunteer your services for a couple of hours as often as you can make it, it is impossible to reach every house in the electoral area without the invaluable help of everyone in our group!  To date we have been out and about in rural areas surrounding Myshall, Garryhill, Borris and St. Mullins and tonight we will be concentrating on the Ballon area.  Please contact Nicola and let her know when you have a couple of hours free.

To keep up with all our election news via your email account please enter your email address on the right hand side of the screen and hit the subscribe button.  You will then receive an email (you might have to check your spam box) asking you to verify your address, click this verification link and you will then receive all Alan’s news directly into your inbox!!

Tags: Ballon, Borris, Canvassing, Cllr Alan Price, election, email news, Garryhill, Myshall, news, St. Mullins

By the time you read this post all Alan’s election posters will be up in stragetic positions around the Borris electoral area.  The team looked raring to go as they left Clasheen and extremely stylish as they all sported the new ‘Vote PRICE no. 1′ high visability jackets.  Thanks a million to Andrew, Brian, Jimmy, Sean and Pa who put in a trojan effort in preparing, loading and erecting them, we couldn’t have done it without you all!  We will be getting another delivery of posters (never let it be said that we are slacking!!) sometime over the next week and if anyone else would like to step forward and offer some help your time would be greatly appreciated.

The recycled cmapaign flyers (folded A5 style) are being picked up tomorrow morning from TMC in Carlow so from Friday morning it will be full steam ahead with the canvassing.  Check in with Nicola to let her know when you are available to join the team, we will be canvassing almost every day between now and the elections and welcome everyone to come and join in the excitment.

Tags: Borris, Borris electoral area, electoral area, flyers, help, posters, recycled

With only 34 hours to go until we can erect Alan’s election posters things are hotting up chez Clasheen!  All the posters arrived yesterday morning and after I had helped the guy unload the truck I put one up to greet Alan on his arrival back in the evening, not I might add on a public road but at the bottom of our private lane to the farm.  Unfortunately the printing on the back that we ordered was missing (Vote no 1 - PRICE), this is very annoying but obviously we need to work with what we have and not spend time worrying about what we can’t change.  This morning we contacted everyone who had offered to help get the posters up and thanks to them if everything goes according to plan intend having the whole area covered by the end of Wednesday evening. 

Thanks to some timely assistance I now have a group messaging system set up and will be getting text updates out to everyone interested in helping Alan’s campaign.  We REALLY appreciate any time that you can offer to help ensure Alan’s re-election, canvassing, driving, cooking, reading the local papers, listening to the radio, everything adds to the effort and makes our task realistic and achievable.  If you are available for a 2 to 3 hour slot any morning, afternoon or evening please contact Nicola and let her know exactly when you are free to join the team.

BORRIS LIBRARY UPDATE

Alan, together with Deputy Mary White has welcomed the announcement that Borris library is to be awarded €200,000 under a two year capital programme for public libraries.

Deputy White, who is the Green Party’s Arts spokesperson said: “I’m absolutely delighted that after ten years of campaigning, Borris will now have its very own library. We already have a state of the art building in the old school and now we have an initial start-up funding of €200,000. For the first time ever, the people of Borris will have their own library and all that it brings – computer resources, books, a meeting place and much more.”

“I’d like to thank my colleague and Environment Minister John Gormley, who visited Borris library last year and inspected the building for himself and saw its potential. I and my colleague Cllr Alan Price are delighted that after a ten year campaign, the funding has finally been found in what are very difficult times.”

A total of €8.5 million has been awarded to libraries across the country. In 2008 there were over 14 million visits to libraries in Ireland and visitor numbers are growing. “Libraries have a space for everyone,” said Deputy White. “You’ll see young mothers and their children, teenagers, older persons, researchers, those who want to learn a language, those who want to borrow a CD or DVD. Libraries can provide space for quiet reflection or as a meeting point for groups. I hope that the people of Borris will utilise this new wonderful resource.”

Alan highlighted that the new library in the Old School House building will be located adjacent to the CRISP Centre which provides high quality IT training and access services to the local community. With both services working closely together it means that Borris will have a first class community resource with the latest technology which will deliver benefits both to the community and to the local economy.

Tags: Borris, Borris electoral area, Borris library, campaign, Canvassing, Deputy Mary White, election, funding, library, Local Election, local election campaign, Mary White, posters

Alan’s election posters are now printed and will be arriving here at Clasheen on either Sunday or Monday.  This means that we definitely will be ready to start erecting them as soon as we are legally allowed, this is from 12pm on Tuesday night!  If any of you are available to help with this task on either Tuesday night or at any time during Wednesday please contact Nicola asap and let her know what time would suit.  All help is greatly appreciated.

Tags: Alan Price, election, help needed, posters

           Last night a large group of Carlow/Kilkenny Greens joined friends and art lovers to celebrate the opening of Eddie McLoughlin’s debut art exhibition ‘Wanderings of an Itinerant Dentist in the Amazon Forests’.  Curated and opened by author, photographer and film maker David Donohoe this exhibition runs in Richie and Christina’s Cafe Formenti, Dublin Street, Carlow until 10th May.   This show is not grant aided in any way but instead a wonderful example of how people living in Carlow and Kilkenny can collaborate and stage an exhibition with determination, hard work and loads of enthusiasm!  These vibrant paintings celebrate Eddie’s love of the parrot and have been painted over a 40 year period inspired by his early working life as a dentist in Guyana, South America.  Why not pop in to Cafe Formenti yourself and see the paintings in person or check out ArtL!nks for more information about the artist?

Another photo from the exhibition is on Alan’s new Flickr page and you can also see some recent images of Alan out and about!

Tags: Alan Price, art, ArtL!nks, Artlinks, Carlow/Kilkenny Greens, Cllr Alan Price, exhibition, Green Party