Labour look to smash that glass ceiling

Campaign Trail

Reporter Seamus Enright went out for a few hours with Labour hopeful Liam van der Spek...

Liam van der Spek and his campaign team park up at Kilnavarragh, a stone’s throw from Terry Coyle Park. For the minute they’re sheltering from another of those surprise late May showers.

It’s Thursday, May 30, 3pm, and the hope is there are a sufficient number of people at home in the area at this time of day to merit the legwork. The team are hopeful of leveraging some additional support in advance of polling day.

The rain stops as quickly as it started and, as the Labour supporters set out, the smell of rapidly cooled tarmac mingles with the sweet scent of freshly cut grass.

Liam is dressed in a tweed jacket and a new pair of Hoka’s. He picked up a running injury a few weeks back.

The choice of footwear is as much about comfort as trying to keeping pace on the hustings.

He’s committed to not letting the niggle affect his canvassing too much, but laments more how it might affect his “VO2 max” reading on his Apple watch, tracking how much oxygen his body uses while exercising.

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Liam walks up to a door and knocks. No answer. At the next there’s life behind the frosted frontdoor window but again no response. Undeterred, a Labour leaflet passes through each letterbox.

Liam’s quietly hopeful that this time out he might have a real impact in the race for one of six seats available in the Cavan-Belturbet electoral area.

Though still bruised from their spell in government (2011-16), Labour is a party that believes it’s on the way up again.

“There’s been no real negativity,” reports Liam, walking and talking.

“There’s maybe a bit of apathy at some doors, not much different to the past. But overall it’s been really positive.”

The past is where Liam received 591 first preference votes in the locals in 2019, nearly doubling that figure (983) when standing for the wider General Election a year later.

From her driveway one woman rattles off the list of countries her family now live.

Only the youngest still lives at home. The rest have scattered to the four winds - Australia, Canada, England.

It’s a familiar tale - Irish leaving to work abroad, for a better standard of living. It’s almost as common, Liam adds, as hearing people gripe about immigrants flooding into Ireland.

Liam’s canvassing team consists of his partner Monika, mother Joan, and local Labour stalwart Irene Donegan.

They’ve been with him every step of the way, and the belief they have in him is real.

Liam nominated Irene most recently to be recognised at the Labour national conference for her long service to the party locally. She’s been a supporter and active member now for over 40 years.

“She’s kept the show on the road,” credits Liam, listing off the “progressive” changes Irene’s backed down through the years, including those when women’s rights were considered neglected.

So she’s as good a gauge as any to reflect on where Labour stands in the present scheme of things.

“I think we’re still recovering a bit,” she says ruefully of the drubbing received nationally in 2016.

Labour took the brunt of a coalition with Fine Gael that many voters ultimately felt were too heavy-handed in terms of austerity measures. Fine Gael was spared the worst of the wrath, with Labour left holding onto just seven seats from its best-ever showing of 37 five years earlier.

Further turmoil followed when Joan Burton announced her intention to relinquish the role of leader.

“But I do think we’re recovering,” she perks up. “We’ve admitted our mistakes. Somebody asked me before why I’m still with them and I said because they’re the party with the most integrity I’ve ever come across. There are others with integrity I know, but not as much I feel as Labour have.”

Just over a week out from voting day and the growing sense is that things are getting nervy.

Liam looks to this election as an opportunity to do more than simply break new ground.

A recognised face now of two election campaigns, he wants to smash the ceiling.

“My first election was the last locals and I did pretty good considering how other candidates have done in the past.”

That was ahead of some whose parties already held seats.

“So I have to see that as a positive, and a platform to grow from,” he says moving between gardens and doorbells.

Liam stands earnestly before an elderly man who comes to the door at a house with a well-manicured garden.

The man seems wary at first, but once he realises he’s got Liam’s undivided attention he quickly unloads about how he served with the defence forces and, because of his pension, is now unable to get a medical card.

Liam nods back, remarking that issues like access to medical cards are a national problem, but even still, his belief is that, if people serve their country as this man has, they should be entitled to some additional supports.

Exiting through a squeaky iron gate leading back out onto the road, Liam is pragmatic: “I can only do my best.

“I either get it or I don’t. I’m trying to meet as many people on the doors as possible. It’s hard not to get too invested, even knowing that it’s completely outside your control.

“Even if I do a bit better than before I’d be happy.

“I’ll be watching the transfers.”