Wednesday

With the resurrection of the Dail this week, it was a sure thing to have a political task. Only one problem, I wouldn't consider politics a strong point. The three of us met with political journalist Kevin Rafter, who gave us out our task for today, we each had to interview a politician in Buswells hotel. Eden got Finian McGrath, independent and charity crooner. Julie got Lucinda Creighton, a newbie in the Dail scene, representing Fine Gael. I got the Wicked Witch of Westmeath, Mary O'Rourke, who has been a Fianna Failer for nearly thirty years.
I crammed as much information into my head about her time in the Seanad, her controversial career and her various ministerial positions. I squeezed some facts about education in as well, to try and make some interesting questions to entertain the most outspoken woman in Irish politics. I figured a question about corporal punishment might provoke an interesting answer. I should have left it out. I also wanted to bring up the depleting interest in religion in school. I should have left it out.
I rang one of her workers to set up the interview at 12.30, which eventually worked out grand. I left with the crew for the short trip to Buswells; storm clouds were on the horizon. When we arrived in Mary was ready and waiting, so we went straight into the interview room, and the crew started to set up. Ms. O'Rourke was asking what we wanted. 'Do you want me to be funny? Do you want me to be rude? Do you want me to be straight-talking?' and I could have sworn she said 'do you want me to embarrass him?' Not put off by the prospect of being humiliated on national television, I though I had a lot of quality questions.
When the interview started, I congratulated Mary on her recent re-election and thanked her letting me interview her. The first question I asked entitled her to rant a little and I let her go on a bit more than I would have like, but I still got some interesting quotes. It all was going fine until I asked my corporal punishment question. She was not a happy bunny. She lambasted me, and asked me my opinion on it. In order to defuse the situation and move on to the next question, I said that it was a bit before my time. In retrospect, I should have just answered straight out. After that it all seemed to go well. Mary enjoyed talking about all the controversy that she caused last year when she said her political team were 'working like blacks'. We talked about it for a good eight minutes since she enjoyed talking about it so much.
After the interview we got in a nice, pleasant chat about DCU and how life is going to change for me 'in a very big way'. Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving out about her. I'm very grateful to her for taking some time out for me. When I returned to the office, some of the seasoned journalists told me they go out of their way to avoid Mary O'Rourke. I then began to gather the best quotes from the sharp mouthed lady, and proceeded to start my article. I stayed 15 minutes later than usual, eager to portray Mary the way I saw her!