The podcast, that you can listen to here on this page, was produced by Colin Murphy for FOMACS after his experience of traveling around the country talking to immigrant candidates in the run up to the local elections.

Candidates

In May 2009, Colin Murphy hit the roads of Ireland on the campaign trail with some of the 40 immigrants who ran in the local elections. In Dublin, Limerick, Monaghan and Donegal, he talked to candidates and the people they were canvassing about the issues and the practicalities of local politics in Ireland. From Patrick Maphoso's activist independent politics on Dublin's northside to Anna Rooney's staunch support for the Government in Clones, this project charts the diversity of experience and opinion amongst an emerging group of politicians. Ultimately, the experience was a sobering one for many of those. "It will take a long time for people to get used to immigrants participating in the elections," said Maphoso, "but the first generation have to pave the way." In Letterkenny, Michael Abiola Phillips is also philosophical: "I won't be disappointed even if I don't get in this time around," he said. "It means I have to work harder."

The project resulted in a series of print articles and radio broadcasts. Articles ran in the Sunday Tribune and Le Monde Diplomatique (the latter accompanied by a podcast); a 20-minute radio documentary is to be podcast on RTE Choice and an eight-minute version will be broadcast on The Curious Ear on RTE Radio One at 6.45pm on December 5. A version of the 20-minute documentary has also been broadcast by Radio France International in the Crossroads programme.

Patrick Maphoso (right) canvassing in Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren, Sunday Tribune.

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Additional Patrick Maphoso photo courtesy: Metro Éireann