There was a little bit of everything at the Fine Gael Local Elections launch in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel last night.
A nod to their history with the presence of former TD, Senator, MEP and Councillor Charlie McDonald, who told the meeting that his first involvement with the party was way back in 1948.
A glance to their future with the acknowledgement that party’s long-serving TD Charlie Flanagan won’t be contesting the next General Election – and the suggestion from Flanagan himself that at least one of their Local Election candidates will also be a Dáil candidate within the next year.
A look to Europe in the guise of special guest Nina Carbery, herself looking to be elected as an MEP.
A number of parting shots at Sinn Féin and the independents. A couple of impassioned pleas from the floor for Fine Gael not to forget about the farming community.
But mostly it was about their eight candidates in the Local Elections on June 7.
A lot has changed since 2019. Then they won seven seats, though Aisling Moran, who was elected in Graiguecullen-Portarlington, has left the party and become an independent. Aisling’s dad John, who was a long-serving councillor and a General Election candidate in 2011, retired prior to the last elections has since sadly passed away.
Tom Mulhall from Emo, who was emphatically re-elected in 2019 for a third time, passed away recently too. Mary Sweeney retired her council seat, one she held since 1999, in 2022. So Fine Gael come into this election with a largely different look than they did five years ago.
As it stands, they have six councillors out of 19. All six – Willie Aird, Thomasina Connell and Barry Walsh in Portlaoise, PJ Kelly in Graiguecullen-Portarlington and Conor Bergin and John King in Borris-Mountmellick – are contesting.
And they’re joined by Vivienne Phelan from Stradbally in the Graigue-Port District and Paddy Buggy in the Borris-Mountmellick District.
Phelan (2019) and Buggy (2009) have both contested elections before and are back for another go; conversely PJ Kelly and Barry Walsh, though sitting councillors, are running for the first time having been co-opted in place of Tom Mulhall and Mary Sweeney respectively over the course of this council’s term.
“We have eight candidates going for eight seats. There are no sweepers for Fine Gael. Fine Gael don’t do sweepers,” declared Charlie Flanagan in his opening address.
Recalling his own first election – in the Locals of 1985 when he was elected in the old Tinnahinch area – Flanagan said “the connections I made at local level then stuck with me throughout my career”.
“At local level, more so than at national level, you are making a real difference for real people. For individuals, for families, for communities.”
With a dual focus of the Local and General Elections, of which both will take place within the next 12 months, he reiterated that, after nine previous national campaigns, he “won’t be putting my name forward” the next time.
That, of course, will open the door for someone else.
“That place (as the Fine Gael candidate) will be filled by one or two of the candidates we have here tonight. For many, the Locals can be the stepping stone to national level.
“And I wish you very well in that regard too. The most frequent route is as a member of local council. I know they won’t admit it but I know some will be looking at that too.”
Citing a record number of Gardai in Laois, a record investment in roads, a 29% increase in employment in Laois in the past seven years and over €37 million in funding from the Town and Village Renewal scheme, he also said that Fine Gael, at local and national level, provide “an alternative to Sinn Féin”.
To loud applause, he declared that “the people of Laois don’t want a Sinn Féin government and they don’t want Mary Lou McDonald as Taoiseach”.
“We in Fine Gael have to provide an alternative to Sinn Féin. We provided an alternative to Fianna Fáil in 2011 when we took over a country in ruins and rescued the economy. The unemployment rate went from 14% to 5%, which is practically full employment.
“We will ensure that the people are served with an alternative. Our local candidates are an alternative to Sinn Féin in this council – they are good and valid and dedicated alternatives and it is up to all of us here that these eight are elected.”
Conor Bergin, who in 2019 was elected at the age of 25 as the youngest Fine Gael councillor, was the first to speak.
“Five years ago I stood as a new candidate, as an underdog. I didn’t know how I’d get on but I knew hard I would work,” he said before adding that the real important role of a councillor is the individual one-on-one work.
“Take nothing for granted,” he implored his party colleagues. “The worst thing you will hear is that you have a safe seat. There are no safe seats. Every candidate starts with the same number of votes.”
Paddy Buggy, who endured an agonisingly, narrow marathon defeat in the Portlaoise area in 2009, cited his four reasons to run: that farmers, of which he is one himself as well as being manager of the MDA in Mountmellick, are listened to at council level; that towns and villages are invested in; a greater focus on the supply of serviced sites; and that he isn’t willing to “stand idly by and watch Sinn Féin take control of this country”.
“The way we can block them is by us winning eight seats.”
John King also had a pop at Sinn Féin. “Sinn Féin want us out but we have them out and we want to keep them there,” he declared. “We are judged on our record and I know our record is good.”
Charlie Flanagan remarked in his closing speech that half of the Fine Gael team were active farmers with PJ Kelly telling the gathering that he had been sowing corn until an hour before the meeting.
With four young children, aged from 2 to 10, he said he “has a serious interest in the workings of the council for the future of my family and many families like us”.
Co-opted to the council in place of Tom Mulhall in 2021, he was campaign manager for his three successful campaigns in 2009, 2014 and 2019 “and along with Vivienne (Phelan) we want to hold on to the two seats we had in this area at the start of the council”.
“Since 2019, I’ve been preparing for this election,” said the Stradbally-based candidate Phelan. “I’ve been serving my time and I’ve increased my enthusiasm.”
The longest speech belonged to the longest-serving councillor Willie Aird, who was only getting into his stride when the bell rang to indicate he had spoken for two minutes and he’d only a minute left. “Ah jaysus,” he exclaimed to great laughter.
He duly turned a blind eye to the time limit, though there weren’t any complaints from the floor.
Elected a town councillor in 1979 in Portlaoise, he has been a county councillor since 1985.
“When you knock on a door and someone says ‘thanks’ for something you’ve done for the, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
“The mornings I look at my phone and I don’t have two or three missed calls, I get worried.
“I’m very proud of the people we have running for us,” he said before finishing up with a tale from the campaign trail and a young woman who told him that her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother had all voted for Willie Aird down through the years.
“‘And I’ll be voting for you too’,” Willie said she told him.
Thomasina Connell referenced “our great county” and “that Laois County Council has exceeded any target set by the Department of Housing”.
“The vitality of Ireland depends not just on our towns and cities but on the prosperity of our rural communities.”
“The upcoming locals are a tester for the next General Election. We need to win as many seats to set the tone for the next General.”
By dint of alphabetical order, Barry Walsh from Ballyroan, who is a councillor in the Portlaoise area, was last to speak.
Co-opted in place of Mary Sweeney in 2022, who was among the 80-strong crowd, he spoke of “how rewarding” he has found the role of a councillor.
“I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so much,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in community spirit and once good facilities are provided it filters out to so many areas”.
All eyes now turn to June 7.
SEE ALSO – Local Elections: Sinn Féin set out their stall in bid to take record number of council seats
