Most of the time our household was a happy place (well if I kept out the ould lad's way) but whenever elections came up either local or National, battle lines were drawn. You see my Mother was Fine Gael and the ould lad was Fianna Fail. Now I can't be arsed to explain the in and outs of the different parties except they were the two largest. There was a fledgling Labour Party at the time as well. Google FTW if you want to find out more.
Anyway a couple of weeks before the elections they would avoid each other and my mother being the quiet soul that she was would suffer in stoic silence as the ould lad would go about his daily work muttering snide remarks like "fecking blueshirts".
The traditional make up of families would be if your family was one side or the other all your children and their children would be the same. So with the family split I used to wish I had taken holidays at this point.
"Who you voting for" says the ould lad
"Secret ballot" says I
"Secret my fecking arse, you have a duty" says he
"To who Fianna Fail" says I
"Of course" says he "Your family always voted that way"
My mother on the other hand would be more subtle, dropping little hints along the way.
"You know what to do, three sausages this morning son ?" says she
"I always brought you up to do the right thing" says she
Voting day came and it was held in the school and we all dutifully traipsed down and voted in order of our choice (it is proportional representation in Ireland). I went to the pub after voting and had a couple and then arrived home and the black cloud had lifted from the house now the deed was done with the odd couple all lovey dovey again.
"Who did you vote for then" beamed the ould lad
"Secret ballot" says I
"You can tell us it's over now" says the Ma
"Well I couldn't make up my mind, given your arguments for and against so I voted Labour" says I
I was not spoken to by either parent for at least a fortnight.
FML it was a lose/lose and I might as well have had both mad at me as one, at least that way they were talking to one another....
