election eve in eireann

"How are you going to vote?" quoth me.
"I don't know, they're all the same," says Rowena.
"If you say they're all the same, they will be," quoth me.
"I can't pick between them," sez she.
"Well what are the main issues for you?" wonders me.
"Funding for social services," answereth she.
I ruminate briefly under a rising pression.
The little vein down my forehead pulses.
"Is everyone just looking for money for their own little bailiwick?" I burst out finally. "Is that Irish politics? Is it all about more money for nursies, more money for soldiers, more money for bus drivers, more money for anyone in an IRA run trade union, money, money, money? Is that the only issue? Is anyone capable of advocating something on any other issue in the interests of the broader community that is not an excuse to demand limitless sums of money? Is no one concerned about the gangs taking over our towns and cities? The mafia owned Judges letting murderers off with pattycake sentences and the mafia infiltrated prison service letting murderers out at weekends or quietly truncating their sentences to half nothing? Does anyone care about the collapse of immigration law? Sex change operations which don't work being carried out on kids at Crumlin Children's Hospital by Frankenstein British doctors that the Health Services Executive has imported from England with funding from the debased and debasing European Union because no Irish doctor would violate children in this way? Does no one care about the legalisation of abortion? Are you all just worrying about gouging a few last sad extra pennies out of these kleptocrats while Ireland falls down around you? Do people care about nothing except demanding more money for themselves?"
"Actually you might have a point there," said Rowena.