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WE CAN EXPECT to hear quite a bit from Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan over the next few days — the recently-elected MEP is a member of the EU Parliament panel set to grill Ireland’s Commissioner-Designate Phil Hogan this coming Thursday morning (mark your calendars).

Flanagan, of course, made a memorable political impact upon election to the Dáil in 2011, going on to establish a national brand that helped him top the poll in the North West constituency in last May’s EU vote (with minimal outlay, it should be noted).

The outspoken Independent had been running for elections for years before eventually being elected to a council seat in Roscommon in 2o04.

The poster below is from his first campaign, when he ran for a seat in Galway West in the 1997 General Election.

Ming, of course, started out as a single issue pro-cannabis candidate, and the arrangements for his ‘Ard Fheis’ certainly reflect what was then a very anti-establishment stance…

Doors opening at 11pm… Reggae music… A Frank Fahey look-alike competition (!)

Ming got just over one per cent support in the election, securing less than 600 votes.

Stray observation: Remember ‘cyber’ café’s?

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