LaoisToday Podcast: Senator Mark Wall on early political memories, Senate success and future hopes

<p>Labour Senator Mark Wall is our latest guest on the LaoisToday Podcast.</p> <p>From Castlemitchell outside Athy, he was elected to the Senate earlier this year having been unsuccessful in the previous two General Elections.</p> <p>In a wide-ranging discussion, he chats about his early political memories and recalls the moment his father Jack was first approached run for the Labour party.</p> <p>Mark discusses what it was like to work alongside Jack during his time as a TD before successfully contesting the Local Elections himself in 2009 and 2014 in the Athy local area.</p> <p>He ran for the General Election in 2016 but wasn't helped by the fact that the boundary was changed, meaning a large part of Kildare - including Wall's own home - was moved into the newly-formed Laois constituency.</p> <p>It meant that he wasn't able to even vote for himself though he did go close to winning a seat.</p> <p>In this year's General Election, the boundary decision had been reversed and he performed well again, receiving 12% of the first preference vote, the highest percentage of any Labour candidate in the country and three times greater than what the party polled nationally.</p> <p>But it again wasn't enough as he missed out on one of the three seats. However, it did open the door to contest the Senate elections.</p> <p>And he chats about the surreal feeling of watching that election count from his home in Castlemitchell.</p> <p>As well as that, he takes our quickfire round where he reveals his best and worst decisions and the best advice he ever got.</p> <p>You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or below on Soundcloud.</p> <p>The LaoisToday Podcast is brought to you in association with iCashco, market leaders in automated cash handling.</p>