Back in Paris

I've been back in France for a month, but in my mind it seems like a lot longer. When I had my head buried in books last April and May, I would never have thought that 3 weeks back in Cork would constitute a holiday! However, it's hard to put a measure on the importance of the small pleasures in life, and previously forgotten treasures like fry ups and a roast dinner made my stay in Cork all the more enjoyable. It may sound clichéd, and even soppy, but the thing I had definitely missed the most over the previous four months in France were seeing my friends and family (especially the dogs!) There was a lot of catching up to do and unheard gossip to digest – sometimes online chat just doesn't do some things justice.

Just before I headed back to Cork for the Christmas break, a few friends came over to visit and experience the sights of the City of Lights. It was a great distraction from the exams I had a few days earlier - which amazingly I passed, despite losing most of my notes - and it was refreshing to do some of the touristy stuff, which I was not able to do beforehand because of college (the most striking thing about my stay in Paris so far is how different the experience is actually living here, rather then just spending a few days on a break – there's not many strolls by the Seine, instead there's studying books in the bibliotheque). Anyway, my apartment consists of one bedroom which is just under 10 m2, so it was quite a tight squeeze for the four of us! During those five days the obligatory visit to Disneyland was undertaken. The whole park was caked in a layer of snow and it brought out the child in all of us (this included barraging the unsuspecting people on the Thunder Mountain rollercoaster with a volloy of snowballs – they did not appreciate this). We also visited the breath-taking château in Versailles, and a snowball fight and making snow angels in the gardens of Versailles was really an unforgettable experience.

I didn't want to raise the issue of politics in this diary again, because with the general election campaign firmly under way, I'm sure all of you are sick of it (bar the political hacks, in which I include myself). However, I have to bring up a subject that particularly affects me personally – the issue of being able to vote from abroad, which is currently not available to any Irish citizens, besides Defense Forces and diplomats. In so-called developed countries, the right to vote is one of the most basic and fundamental of rights and it is robbed from every Irish citizen who cannot be present at their polling station on the day of the election, no matter how legitimate their reason is. It is fairly evident that this country makes it a lot more difficult than most to excercise the right to vote (having to register before a certain date instead of it being automatic, normally holding elections on days which ensures that the majority of students can't vote) but it is this practise which I find the most inexcusable.

Why should I be robbed of my vote when I am expanding my horizons and furthering my education abroad? Why should I be deprived of my voice when I am fulfilling a necessary requirement of completing my degree? When this Government's actions have hammered students, and young people in general, out of total proportion to any other group in society - why am I not able to do my patriotic duty in throwing out of power the worst government in the history of this State?

This is not even mentioning the plight of the growing number of mainly young people emigrating to other countries due to the economic negligence of those in the Dáil (projected to be 100,000 in the next two years). It is twistingly ironic that the very people who have been failed most by this State cannot excercise their right to exact their revenge. Perhaps it is a part of Fianna Fáil's electoral strategy that these voices will be silent in the most important election of our generation. The most depressing reality is that the 'grey' vote of that party, cynically the only group not affected by the savage cuts of Budget 2011, and many with an inbred ignorance of anything other than Civil War politics, will ensure that Fianna Fáil live on after the election - and that the young people of Ireland will continue to suffer.