Olof Gill
The great juggling feat facing first-time TD and Mayo football manager John O’Mahony began in earnest last week with the first sitting of the new Dáil.
“Last Thursday was the big day,” Deputy O’Mahony told The Mayo News. When asked to describe the experience of entering Dáil Éireann for the first time, he outlined the great ‘sense of occasion and privilege,’ but also the strong ‘sense of responsibility in representing the people of Mayo’.
Deputy O’Mahony arrived in Dublin with his family and members of his campaign team. His family were, he told The Mayo News, struck by the great sense of history permeating the building and very impressed with the workings of it.
For Deputy O’Mahony, last Thursday also marked the beginning of his own dual career as Mayo TD and senior football manager. Having consistently maintained, before and during the election campaign, that if elected he would see out his full three-year term as Mayo manager, O’Mahony is sticking to his guns. His first experience of parliament has not affected that conviction. “Last Thursday, the last Dáil vote took place around 8.30pm, and I went straight from there to watch the Dublin-based Mayo players train and touch base with them.”
Speaking en route from an official function to his office in Claremorris on Monday, Deputy O’Mahony said he does not feel his balancing act is unmanageable, laughing off the suggestion that he will be too busy to devote enough time to both jobs. “I’ve been very busy all my life,” he says, “and I see this as a challenge.”
“What’s happening now is just the execution of what I said long before the election. It’s a matter of decision-making, careful time management and representing the people of Mayo while at the same time ensuring the senior team is well-prepared.”
