By Grace Campbell
There is no easy solution for getting young people interested in politics, particularly at EU level. Just ask Sinn Féin’s candidate, Kathleen Funchion who is the youngest of the candidates to be standing in the upcoming European elections for the East constituency in June.
At the tender age of 27 Kathleen is the youngest candidate put forward by any of the political parties for the Eastern region, not just the baby of the Sinn Fein bunch. So who better to ask than Ms. Funchion about disinterest among her peers.
“Apathy is not the solution and it is not the answer,” said Kathleen. “There is apathy in general because the way things are going with our economy. Then you’ve got the European stuff which people feel so removed from.”
Kathleen got involved in politics from a young age but was not raised in a Republican household. “It was the Nice Treaty that got me interested,” said Kathleen. “I had an interest in Irish history anyway and I got a lot from reading about Sinn Fein.”
Kathleen felt Sinn Fein was “The only party that I could see was physical on the street”. She added: “I thought their information was to the point, there was no sort of nonsense. I like that approach and I read more into the policies and I got more involved on local level.”
Sinn Fein has made the headlines over the years for their involvement in pursuing a 32 county Republic. This issue is what people associate the party with, which in turn casts a shadow over other work their followers are involved with.
“Obviously there is a history there. It’s like any conflict situation people don’t know a huge amount about it or they have a certain view in their own head,” said Kathleen. “If we get more support in the 26 counties and we get more young people on board that image will start to change.”
After officially being nominated for the elections last Thursday 7 May in Naas Courthouse, Kathleen described the election process as feeling “a bit more real”.
So what is this twenty-something year old going to offer that the older and perhaps wiser candidates cannot? Empathy, of course. After all it is arguably her age range that the economy has hit hardest so it comes across as being far more genuine from someone who is experiencing financial or personal difficulty in this climate for themselves.
“There’s a real fear out there for paying your rent or your mortgage or trying to even get food,” said Kathleen. “People are looking for somebody different because they don’t have that confidence in the government at the moment.”
It sure looks like Kathleen will keep her older counterparts on their toes in the lead up to the elections in next few weeks. And who knows, perhaps a younger generation of voters might tune in to see it happen. .
There is no easy solution for getting young people interested in politics, particularly at EU level. Just ask Sinn Féin’s candidate, Kathleen Funchion who is the youngest of the candidates to be standing in the upcoming European elections for the East constituency in June.
At the tender age of 27 Kathleen is the youngest candidate put forward by any of the political parties for the Eastern region, not just the baby of the Sinn Fein bunch. So who better to ask than Ms. Funchion about disinterest among her peers.
“Apathy is not the solution and it is not the answer,” said Kathleen. “There is apathy in general because the way things are going with our economy. Then you’ve got the European stuff which people feel so removed from.”
Kathleen got involved in politics from a young age but was not raised in a Republican household. “It was the Nice Treaty that got me interested,” said Kathleen. “I had an interest in Irish history anyway and I got a lot from reading about Sinn Fein.”
Kathleen felt Sinn Fein was “The only party that I could see was physical on the street”. She added: “I thought their information was to the point, there was no sort of nonsense. I like that approach and I read more into the policies and I got more involved on local level.”
Sinn Fein has made the headlines over the years for their involvement in pursuing a 32 county Republic. This issue is what people associate the party with, which in turn casts a shadow over other work their followers are involved with.
“Obviously there is a history there. It’s like any conflict situation people don’t know a huge amount about it or they have a certain view in their own head,” said Kathleen. “If we get more support in the 26 counties and we get more young people on board that image will start to change.”
After officially being nominated for the elections last Thursday 7 May in Naas Courthouse, Kathleen described the election process as feeling “a bit more real”.
So what is this twenty-something year old going to offer that the older and perhaps wiser candidates cannot? Empathy, of course. After all it is arguably her age range that the economy has hit hardest so it comes across as being far more genuine from someone who is experiencing financial or personal difficulty in this climate for themselves.
“There’s a real fear out there for paying your rent or your mortgage or trying to even get food,” said Kathleen. “People are looking for somebody different because they don’t have that confidence in the government at the moment.”
It sure looks like Kathleen will keep her older counterparts on their toes in the lead up to the elections in next few weeks. And who knows, perhaps a younger generation of voters might tune in to see it happen. .
