The Day, the Night and now the Morning.

21st March, 2010

Am sitting at Killarney train station at 07.27. Oh yes. The joy. Went to bed a few hours ago and up again. But I want to get home while there is still a Sunday to enjoy. We had a really successful national conference but family life beckons.

Yesterday was very busy. My main role was chairing the New Politics session yesterday. This is all about our proposals on reform of the political system. I spent a fair bit of yesterday morning getting ready for it. In the end the session went well.

Our panel speakers went on for longer than I expected. I refused to end the session until everyone from the floor got a chance to speak. It might not have made me wildly popular with the organisers but you can’t deny members the opportunity to speak.

After that I was a member of the panel on transport and the environment.  Straight forward enough but we did manage to prompt some heckling.

Something else that was prompted was a demonstration from the unions. A small enough bunch turned up to protest outside the hotel. Still, nice to feel relevant.

Then we had Enda’s address. Hall was packed with some good stuff beforehand. My colleague Paudy Coffey got his day (evening) in the sun. Leo had a go at the banks and the Ringer brought the house down by comparing Bertie to Dellboy, selling books out of the back of his car boot.

I thought Enda did really well last night. He articulated how we would be different on banks, the economy, the political system and the health system. It got a great reception in the hall but more importantly I got a good stream of positive texts from the ‘real world’.

Great night afterwards.