The lovely Moochin Photoman took a few shots of Team McAuley on Sunday which we think look great.

Kevin (our election agent) will hopefully become somewhat of  a memorable character in the next few weeks.

In addition, Emma Gallen from the Gown secured a small interview with Martin on Sunday: you can read the article here.

We’re leaving Martin’s nomination papers into the Electoral Office at 3:30pm today, exciting stuff. Finally, we placed our order for electoral posters this morning. What do you think?

Hello, I’m Patrick. I’m working on Martin’s campaign and will supply occasional posts and updates to Martin’s blog (but most will come from Martin, obviously).

Today was the first real day of Martin’s campaign to be elected in Belfast North. Admittedly we were on the back foot originally when Martin decided to run, but we’ve finally gotten up to pace now. Our manifesto had finally been released (which you can read above) after numerous tweaks and various issues with Adobe InDesign CS4 getting the better of me. The social media element had begun to turn heads as friends realised that yes, he was ACTUALLY running for election.

Our first official voyage as a team was to meet the Deputy Returning Officer in the Glengormley electoral office in order to make sure our nomination papers were correct before we left them in on Monday. The gorgeous weather meant we were all dressed casually: the sight of various politicians in full formal attire made us all feel ridiculously under dressed. However, Martin has always been a man of substance over style. A short meeting with the lovely Janet and a quick photoshoot for the Newtonabbey Times, then we decided to sample some of Glengormley’s finest ice cream.

Out of the blue, an article popped up on Slugger O’ Toole. We were all a bit shocked, considering we hadn’t really started campaigning and we hadn’t even sent out a press release. It seems the viral posters we created early on had created a bit of buzz: in particular the “women drivers” one. Obviously, these were a joke intended to spread the word about Martin and get people interested: and it seems to have worked! Various people have passed on emails, tweets and comments giving support to Martin and we all really appreciate it.

We are serious about this election, and we can’t wait for the coming days and weeks. Vote for Martin on May 6th if you want real change within Belfast!

I’m not going to post anything particularly important in this first post, as few people will actually read it. We all know how the Internet works.

Over the coming days and weeks we will bring you updates and information as we get started on our election campaign. You can of course follow me on Twitter at @martinmcauley and we have a Facebook group set up here if you’re interested.

Click on the top bar to read our manifesto (or if you’re short on time, our mini-festo) and come join us on our election journey in an effort to bring real change to North Belfast.

Martin