Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Luke 'Ming' Flanagan


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   no consensus.  Sandstein  05:46, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan
AfDs for this article: 
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Contested Prod, Has won a local election, but doesn't have significant coverage in reliable sources. He does not meet the general notability or the specific politician criteria. A new name 2008 (talk) 01:50, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete - Extremely minor candidate in elections, holds a seat of an minor (city of less than 3k) municipal counsel.  Grandmartin11 (talk) 03:07, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Neutral - evidently I was looking at old information. Grandmartin11 (talk) 17:35, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Do not delete - This is simply false. I am not aware of him holding 'a seat of an minor (city of less than 3k) municipal counsel' (source?), he is a member of Roscommon County Council, (pop 58k), see here. He is by a wide margin nationally the best-know politician from Roscommon, and appears on local and national radio at least weekly if not more. See a single example here. His name returns 100k hits in Google, I checked the first 10 pages and they all referred to him.

By your standard, would you delete the article on Richard Boyd Barrett, who is an unsuccessful candidate for a position at the same level that he was elected for? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tzq99 (talk • contribs) 09:07, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete Non-notable politician with very little media coverage. Passportguy (talk) 09:45, 6 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Do not Delete (strike second vote) - Have you looked at the Google hits for his name? There are many, many pages from high-pageranked news sites. How do you define 'very little media coverage'? Tzq99 (talk) 10:52, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Weak delete. He seems to come a little close to notability for being something of a rabblerouser, but that seems to be all he does, and it doesn't quite cross any sort of a line that anyone can draw.  If we can get some more reliable sources it'll change my mind.  Tzq99, try those links for guidance for what we're looking for.  I don't think the Elections Ireland site can be used, nor can breakingnews.ie - some better results would help immensely.  -- Dennis The Tiger   (Rawr and stuff) 17:44, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Um, exactly why are Breaking News (cited in 876 Wikipedia articles) and Elections Ireland (cited in 1230 articles) not acceptable in this article? There are dozens of stories available from web versions of printed national and local broadsheet newspapers, such as Roscommon Herald, Irish Times and Irish Independent. I am happy to copy and paste in the links here but it seems a bit excessive when I expect most people can use Google.

As to "something of a rabblerouser, but that seems to be all he does", that seems to go flatly against Wikipedia policy about deleting articles just because you don't like the subject. Either you are arguing that he features highly in the media or he doesn't, but it seems daft to argue both are reasons for deletion. Tzq99 (talk) 18:20, 6 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Keep Actually, he does meet the "first-level sub-national" office holder criterion of WP:POLITICIAN by being a member of Roscommon County Council. (I have to admit, that even to a wild-eyed inclusionist like me, that being a member of a local council does seem a bit low as a threshold considering the powers of councillors in Ireland relative to other countries, but it is a first-level sub-national office.) There are enough reports out there in the press to verify details in the article, as verified and sourced they should be.  FlowerpotmaN &middot;( t ) 22:08, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Ireland-related deletion discussions.  —  FlowerpotmaN &middot;( t ) 22:18, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Merge to List of Irish politicians. I think "First-level sub-national office holder" in the Republic of Ireland would mean the leaders or chairmen of each County Council, not every single Councillor; and besides, there's just not enough encyclopaedic material on him to justify a separate article.— S Marshall   Talk / Cont  22:18, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment 'Fraid not, Mayors, as they have been called for all City and County Councils forthe last couple of years (formerly Mayors for the Borough Councils and chairmen (or chairwomen) for the other councils) don't have any unique powers or role by virtue of office; they are essentially ceremonial roles and are elected by the council members every year. Mayors are meeters and greeters and cutters of ribbons at the moment; there were suggestions of making the Mayor of Dublin a more powerful position, but they seemd to have faded a bit.  FlowerpotmaN &middot;( t ) 22:58, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Living people-related deletion discussions. --Erwin85Bot (talk) 00:01, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep - He has a very high media profile (and has had for many years) for a local councillor. The assertion that doesn't have significant coverage in reliable sources is simply false. Snappy (talk) 04:59, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Please Verify Claims - I am concerned about the number of transparently false claims made by people arguing for a delete, and I would ask anyone not familiar with Irish politics to spend 10 seconds on Google verifying them for themselves, and also bear in mind that there is an election in the next month which may colour the judgement of people with a party affiliation about independent councillors. It is claimed on this page:


 * Extremely minor candidate in elections, holds a seat of an minor ... municipal counsel
 * Non-notable politician with very little media coverage
 * something of a rabblerouser, but that seems to be all he does

All of these can be found to false with a 10 second Google search, and I must ask if these assertions were made in good faith, where the authors got the information. I am not a big Wikipedia author, but the criteria for listing politicians seems to be fulfilling any one of the three criteria here. It is seems to me that the subject of this article meets all three. Tzq99 (talk) 11:39, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.