The upcoming by-election candidates are up to all sorts of wacky adventures, and they’re hoping you’ll join them.
Helen Ogbu is handing out packets of Hunky Dorys on a commuter train, while Ruth O’Dea has taken up urbex (the activity of urban exploring abandoned buildings). Daniel Ennis is getting on and off the Luas while talking to a camera about the Soc Dems’ transport proposals – all while narrowly avoiding confused commuters. Many are just around town talking to their phones, but most are out canvassing, the least engaging adventure of them all.
The would-be TDs are hard at work trying to generate the kind of content – viral, memeable, remarkable content – that gets people to stop and watch a few seconds of party propaganda.
They have a tough act to follow.
Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral election campaign has ushered in a new era of political communication strategies. His charming and stylish video-first media machine, backed by Bernie Sanders’ new progressive video agency, FIGHT, made a city vote into a global debate on the power of the moving image in our modern attention economy.
Meanwhile, the Irish left’s media strategies struggle to be born. Our own social democratic parties are hoping this by-election will be “a wake-up call for the government”.
Is the call coming from inside the house?
The investment, or lack thereof, in our potential new TDs can tell us a lot about the energy in their parties, the faith of their supporters, their chances of success, and what tactics will likely shape our next general election (which may come sooner than expected).
Labour
Other than a skit comedy video opening of Labour’s Galway by-election candidate Helen Ogbu handing out free snacks to commuters, the Nigerian-born Galwegian has largely been left to her own devices, literally. With her trusty Rode microphone in hand, she successfully nabbed a smattering of Labour heads for soundbites. At an event in the Mick Lally Theatre, leader Ivana Bacik is a little surprised by the tiny glowing mic in Ogbu’s hand that jumps in to convert Bacik’s speech into content.
Candidate Ruth O’Dea has a geographic advantage of being close to the party’s Dublin media HQ. In one successful video, highlighting a case of DCC dereliction, she tries her best to act both trustworthy and appalled as she explores two abandoned homes.
O’Dea is likely managing the majority of her own content, however. Given the low quality of the community activist’s videos, it seems she hasn’t been given suitable editing software to export in high definition – are we to believe she’s worth investing in when her party can’t contribute €15 a month?
Social Democrats
Particularly in this domain, the Soc Dems showcase how much youth and vigour they’ve stolen from Labour. Dublin candidate Daniel Ennis has taken the most direct inspiration from Mamdani, with crash zooms, high-energy camera work, and warm moments of human interaction. The outtakes and fumbles occasionally stay in the edit too.
He’s playing pool in the Sean O’Casey community centre one minute, and interviewing leader Holly Cairns about childcare costs on playground swings the next – there are fun ideas here. They’re playing to the algorithm with formats proven to work, like the councillor listing his favourite Dublin spots: coffee shop, Chinese food, places to walk, etc.
Their Galway candidate Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich has a far more muted campaign by comparison, but with a ring light and some professional video equipment on hand, we may yet see this former students’ union organiser do embarrassing stuff to accumulate some airtime.
Greens
The Greens are hoping they can emulate MP Hannah Spencer’s February by-election win, but without any of the Mancunian’s humorous digital tactics.
Cllr Janet Horner has some great opening video hooks (to catch viewers) as part of her Dublin bid – “do you think the north inner city needs more casinos?” and “do you live in X place?” – but there’s little of note beyond the occasional message of support from an obscure UK Green.
Their candidate in Galway seems to have another strategy entirely. Cllr Niall Murphy understands the value of digital, but he’s pumping videos out from the comfort of what looks like a Zoom call from his office. He can’t seem to get enough support from the party’s comms apparatus to even match Hazel Chu’s Dublin content – and she isn’t even running.
Sinn Féin
The narrative of this election, however, will be primarily based on Mary Lou McDonald’s performance in her home constituency. The Sinn Féin leader would enrage establishment hawks if Janice Boylan underperformed.
The councillor’s digital campaign would seem to be making a similar bet. Every third or fourth post is by or of McDonald herself.
Their Galway candidate Mark Lohan is following a similar hymn sheet, but instead features other familiar party faces, and zero appearances of Mary Lou.
Independents
A final mention for Galway independent candidate Sheila Garrity. In one video, the former campaign manager for President Catherine Connolly claims she’s frequently referred to as the Uachtarán’s “continuity candidate” by journalists. She’s reluctant to accept the title verbally, but her campaign’s familiar and persistent branding is clearly a nod to the recent Áras win.
No sign of any basketball or football skills on display yet, but we still hope for even a fraction of that energy from those October highs. If nothing else, the video of a 68-year-old woman doing keepie-uppies has reminded us all of a preference for our political class to have some life and charisma to them – something that could make or break this and the next generation of politicians in an increasingly video-first arena.
