Fine Gael launch local and European election campaigns in Straide

IN DAVITT COUNTRY  Minister Michael Ring and Senator Michelle Mulherin pictured with Fine Gael’s female candidates in Mayo for the European and local elections at the party’s Mayo launch at the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide yesterday (Monday). From left: Maria Walsh, European election candidate; Donna Sheridan, local election candidate, Castlebar; Cllr Tereasa McGuire, local election candidate, Westport; Aileen Horkan, local election candidate, Ballina; Breege Grealis, local election candidate, Belmullet; and Senator Michelle Mulherin. Pic: Keith Heneghan

Fine Gael launch local and European election campaigns in Straide

Áine Ryan

‘RUFFLING the feathers’ of some of the traditional values held by those people with a Fine Gael pedigree will be an important contribution by the many new candidates  – from diverse backgrounds and of both genders – in the upcoming elections, both European and local.
That is according to former Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh, who attended her native county’s  local and European elections launch of Fine Gael candidates in the Michael Davitt Museum, Straide yesterday.
Ms Walsh emphasised the importance of county councillors –  ‘the foot- soldiers’ in the body politic – for informing the higher levels of representation about the priorities of its citizenry.
“We can have the strongest government in place but if we do not have reciprocal communication and the support of our local authority candidates, who I call foot soldiers, we are not in tune with our communities and citizenry as they are their direct representatives. When I started to consider running for politics it was to county councillors I went to for advice, because they are the champions of the people,” Maria Walsh told The Mayo News.
She added: “I don’t come from the ‘pedigree’ side of Fine Gael and neither do a lot of the new candidates running for the party which makes this a very exciting time,” Ms Walsh said.
She said she was ‘blown away’ by the support she has been receiving from Fine Gael party members and so honoured to come from the little cosmopolitan village of Shrule on the Mayo-Galway border while running alongside the ‘exceptional and formidable’ Mairéad McGuinness and supported by such Fine Gael stalwarts as Minister Michael Ring.
“I am not making gender an issue but having four women out of the 18 candidates running in Co Mayo is exciting. It is ensuring that our communities are represented in a broad way and that is not about sexual orientation, creed or country of origins but about putting your hand up for your community,” Ms Walsh said.
She thanked Minister Michael Ring, who officiated,  for being ‘such a champion for rural Ireland’ and, moreover, her ‘champion’ since she put her name forward.
Saying that he had ‘the pleasure of proposing her at convention”, Minister Ring said that ‘for somebody who was a novice to politics, she has nothing to learn’.

Kenny legacy
THE retirement of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his brother Cllr Henry Kenny from politics was cited by a number of speakers.
Senator Michelle Mulherin said: “We haven’t got a Kenny on the ticket this time. It is definitely the end of an era and we should remember Enda and Henry’s harvest for Co Mayo over the decades.” Enda and Henry Kenny’s father, Henry Snr was first elected to the DΡil in 1954.
Chair of the meeting, Cllr John Cribbin had earlier cited the symbolic importance of the venue and the fact that it was Michael Davitt’s birthday. He said nine of the the ten outgoing councillors were running again and wished retiring councillor Henry Kenny well.
He welcomed the 18 candidates and said: “It is our aim and ambition to take control of Mayo County Council in each of the six areas for the next five years.”