Waterford Election 2024: 11 questions with Killian Mangan (Rabharta)
Killian Mangan
Ahead of this weekend’s local elections the Waterford News & Star asked candidates to answer 11 quickfire questions to give the electorate a view of their priorities and what can be expected from them if elected.
We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world (even if it definitely doesn’t feel like it) and there is enough money for everything. Deciding to artificially-limit everything to a binary is a political choice. In a general sense, I would much prefer to focus on essential day-to-day things so prioritising more public investment in local healthcare and daily transport - with new direct, fast trains to Cork and to Limerick every 30 minutes which would help so many people.
Lack of transport. It is the number 1 issue which has come up on doorsteps, and it has affected me personally too. I used to get the 360a bus from the top of my road to Tramore, but the route has been ‘optimised’ by some suit in Dublin and now it’s a 30 mins walk to the closest bus stop and I mostly just drive. If we had a public bus company run by an elected council with proper democratic input from communities, as is the norm in most other cities in the world, things like this wouldn’t happen.
'My 21st Century Blues', by RAYE - nothing else I’ve listened to has captured the completely disillusioned but apathetic carefreeness of our generation. We see the systems around us cause such misery but show determination to fight back and focus on having great moments as an act of defiance against a system which wants us to shut up about injustice and just placidly work our underpaid jobs to pay for our landlord’s monthly holiday to Spain while the planet burns around us.
I became involved in housing, union, and climate activism after realising just how much our generation had been screwed over and how much the voices of us young people were being ignored by those in power.
Helping to set up our political party ‘Rabharta: The Party For Workers And Carers’. It included hundreds of hours of zoom meetings during the pandemic to build out the party’s documents, the programme (our systemic version of policy), party engagement and events, and the comms strategy. Speaking to workers and carers and everyone in the community these past few weeks has only helped to make me more certain that our ideas of more democracy and empowerment is badly-needed.
Cycle lanes as one of the major issues in Waterford for everyone I speak to is traffic, and that is due to many people like me taking up road space while driving, when I and many, many others would prefer to cycle if we could do so safely, which would reduce traffic massively and improve everyone’s lives.
I used to only drink tea but coffee has got its claws into me over the past few years and there’s no turning back now.
Perfectly-cooked fried eggs with cheese and ketchup and mayo.
Maybe Nicola Sturgeon, who managed to calmly and compassionately lead Scotland through Covid while the leaders of neighbouring countries were chaotic, callous, or focused on fear; or Ross Greer who is a passionate young eco-socialist in the Scottish Greens.
My dad probably (I, like most 26-year-olds in Ireland, live at home with my parents) - but I hope that I can cook a bit more when I’m not coming back at 9pm each night after a full day of canvassing.
For Waterford to build thriving communities where people can have a good quality of life with various fun things to do, so that others my age want to actually stay here instead of all emigrating to Australia or other places which provide a better quality of life..
