Who knows, I could have been Taoiseach. Back in 1990, I was beginning college and Austin Currie was running for the presidency. I asked to do an interview with him for the college newspaper and sort of got to know him. I was 17-years-old but had a nerdy interest in politics. After the interview I asked Mr Currie, who was my local Fine Gael TD, if I could go along to a local party meeting in Castleknock, just out of curiosity.

He obliged. I went along. And I never went back. Local lad Leo Varadkar would have been aged 11 at the time. Some years later he would attend his first meeting of the same branch. History shows he obviously felt more at home than I did.

Any curiosity I might have had about dipping my toes into politics was sucked clear out of my mind forever in the space of that one night in a hall in Castleknock.

It takes a special kind of genius or madness to run for politics. The only other profession that comes close in terms of egotism is the media.

Observing Minister Shane Ross’s cringe-worthy efforts to get publicity on the back of Katie Taylor’s homecoming last week backs up that notion. He has admitted as much since. What politicians must do to get noticed.

On a serious note, we must be careful. In this day and age of aggressive social media and in deriding politicians, we run the risk of turning good people off and attracting the wrong sort of individuals.

Look at what is happening in the UK. Look across the pond in the US and indeed look at the retreat to the margins right across Europe too.

Politics is slip sliding sideways, leaving the middle ground dangerously idle and giving oxygen to fundamentalism and extremism. It’s a regressive divisiveness playing out right before our eyes in the UK and which will once again play out in the run into next year’s US presidential election.

Notably though, the recent election results here show that we are way away from such fracturing of politics. Despite everything, the two big parties, like-minded independents, the middle class part of the Green vote along with Labour thrown in, combine to still occupy a fairly commanding chunk of the political cake.

Ten years on from the crash, it is fair to say that, in general, the traditional Irish political landscape hasn’t really shifted much at all. The smaller hard left groupings are split into little pieces while their antithesis such as the likes of Renua and Aontu have made ground not worth talking about. And Sinn Fein, for all they promised, have they hit their peak? Is it a party that was bigger than the sum of its parts under Gerry Adams? The general election will answer those critical questions.

Speaking of elections, one good thing about election posters is being able to observe the age profile of candidates, especially those outside our area. What was noteworthy last month was the number of young candidates. Many got elected, which can only be good in these challenging times.

Going back to that meeting 29 years ago when I was in the flush of youth – eh no, I was never going to become the first Castleknock Taoiseach! In fact, I don’t think I’d have even won a vote for a place on the branch committee had I stayed.

A shot at revenge

My earliest memory following Cavan was the 1983 Ulster final, which they lost to Donegal. Last Sunday, in beating Armagh in the Ulster semi-final, Cavan played as good as I remember in those almost four decades of support since. Sunday week offers a long awaited chance at revenge.