Doing My Irish Homework

I've quickly settled into posting daily again. It really is quite an easy habit having done it for so long last year.

The Irish election count is still going on. Sinn Féin have had a very nice day though so far. With the first preferences counted (Ireland use a PR system with single transferable vote) Sinn Féin have 24.5%, Fianna Fáil 22.2.% and Fine Gael 20.9%.

Sinn Féin have only stood 42 candidates. Far fewer than the other two major parties. At present the seat predictions are that Sinn Féin will have 37 seats, Fine Gael just 36, and Fianna Fáil 45.

I'm typing this as if I know what's actually going on lol, but I'm just lifting it straight from the mainstream media really. I was hoping that there would be more extensive coverage on the UK TV news networks, but it's just getting mentioned in passing as part of the general flow of news. It's all Coronavirus and terrible weather - Storm Ciara. Pronounced Key-reh as I have to keep reminding myself. Oh, and it's the Oscars as well!! Perhaps the most terrifying news of all.

So I haven't learnt as much from the Irish election coverage as I was hoping.

Simply repeating the results on here seems a little silly, but it actually has the benefit of forcing me to pay attention and make note of this stuff. Had I not been blogging I would've certainly paid less attention. So it helps with the learning curve. Kind of like doing your homework. Writing it down makes you take ownership of the information. Even though it may bore your teacher who's read it all before (or you right now - sorry!).

I'm trying to pay more attention as I suspect that both Ireland and Scotland will become the new battlegrounds now that Brexit has been settled in regard Westminster politics (assuming it has been settled in that regard of course). So I need to sharpen up a little bit.

It's easy to get good information where you live. You just have to keep your eyes open and pay attention. Getting good information from further afield takes more effort though. So I'm going to have to find ways of getting more varied information. Watching Irish TV coverage might be useful, and finding some normal Irish people to follow on Twitter could be handy.

In fact, I probably should've followed the RTÉ News Twitter account which I quoted from yesterday. Might go and do that now.