Irish political websites: A lot dumb, more to do?
– posted April 18th, 2007 by Laurence Veale Comments (6)
Blog award organiser, Damien Mulley, has got together with group bloggers, Irishelection.com, and announced the Online Irish Politics Awards. In their own words,
The awards are designed to reward those politicians, parties, NGOs and campaigners who make the best use of the internet in the course of their campaign. In the forthcoming general election, the Internet is set to play a very large role in sustaining support for parties and engaging young voters. The awards seek to reward the parties, individuals and groups who do this best on the basis that it is empowering for democracy.
Do any Irish political websites deserve to win any prizes?
In his latest article, David Moore looks at what the major Irish parties are doing online (and what they’re not) and how they stack up against some of their international counterparts.
Prizes? Maybe not.
Some examples: Harney, Costello and Kenny versus Cameron
Compare Mary Harney’s under construction website, Joe Costello’s empty blog or Fine Gael’s rushed-job with that of UK Conservative leader, David Cameron’s website.
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Categories Content, Design, Spotted, iQ in the news
6 comments so far
1. barry baron on Apr 23rd, 2007 - 03:59
you have some curious websites on the other side of the pond. I do politics in San Diego California, they lack the pazazz you all have the guts to produce.
2. Shauneen Armstrong on Apr 23rd, 2007 - 15:47
That Joe Costello blog page isn’t actually his blog, the page you show is a new function.
You can find Joe’s actual blog here http://www.joecostellotd.blogspot.com/
What you did show is that Labour has just recently launched a new feature where representatives can blog within the Labour site and not rely on an outside blog platform.
There are a number of Labour bloggers already working on blogger.com and wordpress so I don’t envisage anyone setting up their Labour blog between now and the election.
And when comparing sites, consider the money involved. If anyone would like to donate a million, we’ll put it to good web-use.
3. David Moore on Apr 27th, 2007 - 16:34
Hi Shauneen, and thanks for the comment.
The page I show for Joe Costello’s blog isn’t his blog, it’s a new function? I’m pleased that Joe is blogging is elsewhere, but how would I know that from visiting the page on the main Labour site that says it’s his blog?
Linking existing blogs into a centralised system is tricky, but even one entry on the new page telling visitors that Joe maintains his blog elsewhere (with a link, of course) would go a long way. And it wouldn’t cost a million.
BTW. ‘it’s not a blog, it’s a new function’ sounds a lot like the classic software company response - ‘it’s not a bug, it s a feature’
4. Shauneen Armstrong on Apr 28th, 2007 - 20:13
Hi David what I said was that that page isn’t his blog, not “it’s not a blog” and pointed to his blog which is elsewhere.
We do centrally on the website link to everyone’s blogs, which you can find here http://www.labour.ie/bloggingforlabour/
I take what you say about linking to his blog on the page.
5. Kevin Cannon on May 10th, 2007 - 16:24
Shauneen, you obviously don’t take it on board that much, since there’s still no such link there.
http://www.labour.ie/joecostello/blog.html
That’s a really bad mistake to make. I pretty much will make my voting decisions based on data mostly online. I’ve been impressed with Labour’s site in general, but it’s little details like that, that could win votes.
6. Vicki on May 18th, 2007 - 11:55
Just found an online election game called DIY Cabinet. The graphics and soundbites are pretty cool,worthy of George W. himself!! You pick your own government,throw pies and enter a competition to go to electric picnic…not bad! The link is at
http://www.ireland.com/diycabinet
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