ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE The burning desire of the Mayo public for a Mayo Taoiseach was palpable in the days leading up to the election. Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus
Tidal wave – the aftermath
County View
John Healy
THAT tidal wave of goodwill which swept Fine Gael back into electoral dominance in Mayo was a resounding, collective cry from the heart for the idea of a Mayo Taoiseach.
The people of the county were urged to give their support to Enda Kenny’s goal of becoming Taoiseach, and they responded with unfettered enthusiasm. The burning desire of the Mayo public for a Mayo Taoiseach was palpable in the days leading up to the election. They gave Fine Gael their utmost, but – and remembering that, in politics, anything can happen – it was not enough.
The depth of that support was reflected in the ballot boxes and not only did the people back Enda Kenny personally, they also honoured the Fine Gael party line by giving the unprecedented bonus of the first three Dáil seats out of the five.
In so doing, Enda Kenny wiped out the old hometown myth that Castlebar looks after its own. Not alone did he take the ground from under Beverley Flynn in Castlebar, scoring three times the total of his rival, he went on to compound that superiority by failing to transfer his surplus to her in any number worth speaking of.
While it was being confidently predicted at the count centre that Beverley would benefit by up to 1,000 votes from the Kenny surplus of 2,819, the reality turned out to be much different.
When the votes were counted and the distribution calculated, Flynn’s share of the cake was a mere 352 votes. According to popular Castlebar folklore, the transfer to Flynn should have been of the order of 1,500 votes.
The Castlebar mould – if it ever was there – has been well and truly broken this time. The notion of the people of the county town voting strategically for Kenny and Flynn on an equal basis has proved to be groundless. The changing pattern of urban living, and the influx of new voters who had no allegiance to so-called old loyalties, had started the trend.
The electorate’s readiness to put all their eggs in the Kenny basket last month was the surest indicator that the old days are gone.
FIANNA FÁIL COUNTS THE COST
WHATEVER happiness the Mayo result brought for Enda Kenny and Fine Gael, the outcome can only be a disaster for Fianna Fáil.
Party candidate, Frank Chambers, has dubbed the state of the party in Castlebar a shambles. There are few who would disagree with him.
Countywide, the party took 24 per cent of the vote compared to 54 per cent for the Fine Gael team. It was a dismal showing, raising all sorts of questions about the state of the party in Mayo when it should be preparing itself for the local elections in two years and the hope of winning back what was lost.
Frank Chambers said then that the re-organisation of Fianna Fáil had been carried out by experts from Dublin and without consultation with the party faithful on the ground. As it turned out, they were prophetic words, and Fianna Fáil have shipped a massive thunderbolt of public disapproval.
There are some who will argue that the figures are not quite as bad as they appear to be at first glance. Beverley Flynn, after all, is Fianna Fáil in everything but name. Those who might be inclined to question that need look no further than the distribution of Frank Chambers’ solid Fianna Fáil vote on his elimination. Flynn, the estranged daughter of the Fianna Fáil family, was gifted with almost the same number of transfers as were the FF candidates, John Carty and Dara Calleary, 1,279.
The uphill battle by Fianna Fáil to restore its old dominance looks doomed to failure.
LABOUR’S MAYO DILEMMA
THE Mayo election results provided jubilation and sorrow in equal measure for the established parties, but it also posed serious challenges for those on the outside trying to get in.
The performance by Harry Barrett of Labour will come as a grave disappointment to a man who really put his back into this campaign. More basically, the result again asks the question of whether Labour does have a solid foundation in Mayo, and if not, what can be done about it.
An analysis of Harry Barrett’s vote shows that the bulk of what he achieved came either from his native Belmullet; from the Johnny Mee-controlled Labour vote in Castlebar; or from Westport, where there has always been a loyal Labour vote. But his sum total of 831 votes raises doubts about the Labour future if the impending retirement of the popular Johnny Mee comes to pass. If it does, the danger is that his personal vote will go with him, leaving Labour to struggle on with new faces who will find it hard to match Mee’s voter appeal.
Michael Kilcoyne’s break with Labour and his subsequent career as an Independent have inflicted wounds on the party which will not be easily healed. Like Johnny Mee, Kilcoyne is well able to orchestrate and motivate a formidable election machine – so much so that he came within an ace of taking a county council seat last time out.
If Labour is half serious about building a base in Mayo, it cannot afford not to bring Michael Kilcoyne back into the fold. Whether Kilcoyne would have the slightest desire to rejoin the party he so publicly walked out on four years ago, is an entirely different matter. But given that Labour needs Kilcoyne more than Kilcoyne needs Labour, Pat Rabbitte’s loyal activists have their work cut out for them.
END OF THE ROAD?
ANOTHER of the major casualties of the Fine Gael tsunami was Dr Jerry Cowley, whose record-breaking achievement of five years ago was turned on its head when his vote plummeted this time around.
The media and poll predictions in his case proved accurate, and his whirlwind performance of 2002 – when he took votes in every ballot box in the county – is now a thing of distant memory.
Pundits lay much stress on Dr Cowley’s close association with the Shell to Sea campaign as the root cause of his troubles, and the poor thanks he got from the Rossport voters seems to concur with that view. But to leave it at that is to do a disservice to a man who, above all else, believes in his own principles and will stick with what he thinks is right, regardless of the consequences.
His defeat also probably marks the end of his angry dispute with Ballina Chamber of Commerce over what he saw as that body’s bias against him. His well-delivered rebuke via the newspaper letters pages, a week before the election, will now probably mark the close of what turned out to be an acrimonious episode in the history of this particular election campaign.
Whether the defeat marks the end of the political road for Jerry Cowley remains to be seen. The notion of public service and the pursuit of decent values does not always sit easily with life as an elected representative. It was notable, however, that even in the immediate aftermath of defeat, Cowley reiterated his commitment to the projects and ideals which brought him into public life in the first place.
But the great irony must be that, had he secured re-election, Jerry Cowley would today be at the centre of political power, just as Beverley Flynn’s luck has come up trumps at the right time. In 2002, Jerry Cowley was elected at a time when Independents had shown just how powerful a force they could be at national level. The same formula, however, did not work again.
This time, Mayo had wagered all its assets on a Fine Gael Taoiseach and a Mayo leadership. Jerry Cowley was discarded in favour of the elusive dream. But it’s a wager which, in all probability, was not to pay off.
AN ICON REMEMBERED
IT is a small step from modern politics back along the road to more troubled times, and especially to those whose leadership and dedication at local level changed the face of Ireland. One such person was Charles Hughes of Westport, whose name still resonates through the business life of the region, but whose contribution to the political and social development of the time was no less substantial.
Now – and, many would say, not before its time – the story of Charles Hughes has been committed to print, with the launch last week of the definitive ‘Charles Hughes: Lankill to Westport’, performed by author and journalist, Tim Pat Coogan.
Written by Harry Hughes, in co-operation with Mayo News journalist Áine Ryan, the book came about as a natural consequence of celebrations a few years ago to mark the centenary of the family flagship, Charles Hughes Ltd.
For many readers, the remarkable aspect of the life of Charles Hughes is that it gives the lie to the idea that politics and business are necessarily separate, and that successful involvement in one precludes any connection with the other. In the case of Charles Hughes, there was never any conflict between what he saw as his duty as a citizen of a free country and his determination to change for the better the economic condition of his native Westport.
Republican to the last, Charles Hughes knew what his priorities were. Thus, while his fledgling business struggled to find its feet at a time of nationwide turbulence and unrest, Hughes took to the hills to support his on-the-run colleagues in the struggle for national independence. It was a costly call, and he was to see his business premises destroyed by the British forces when they failed to lay their hands on the man himself.
It was this drive and tenacity, however, that stood Charles Hughes in good stead for the following quarter of a century while he lay the foundations of a business empire which brought employment, economic wealth and prosperity to his native town.
A wonderful work of reference, and an equally fascinating history of the life of an icon, ‘Charles Hughes, Lankill to Westport, 1876-1949’ is a must for Westport people at home and abroad.
And, in keeping with the spirit of citizenship which was so much a part of the man himself, all proceeds from the €20 hardback go to the Westport Conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society.
VICTORS AND VANQUISHED
ELECTION count centres are arenas for the successful, as anyone who stood on the edges at the TF Theatre could readily recognise.
Nothing shows up the fickle and fleeting nature of popularity than the scenes which come to dominate election count night. All the more so for those unfortunate enough to be going forward – and failing – in a bid for re-election.
Genuine sympathy for John Carty and Dr Jerry Cowley, both losing their seats after just one term in the Dáil, was tempered with the belief that they had been swept away on a tide of epic proportions. But that hardly takes account of the way in which both men had been plainly let down by constituents they had worked hard for.
John Carty had delivered huge funding to an untold number of community projects across the east and south of Mayo. He had a right to expect that his efforts would be rewarded, that the multi-million funds he had secured would translate into votes at the ballot box. They did not. John Carty saw his base eroded steadily by a Fine Gael newcomer whose reputation so far has been confined to the GAA pitches of the county.
Carty lost his seat, and now he must take to the gruelling task of the highways and byways of Ireland in search of the elusive votes which will elect him to the Seanad and keep him sufficiently in the frame to challenge for his old seat back when the electors choose again five years from now.
