‘Hardworking’ Nugent upbeat despite losing council seat

ACCORDING to cross-party sentiment in City Hall, Sinn Féin’s Mick Nugent was one of the hardest working members of the previous council.

The Knocknaheeny and Hollyhill councillor was eliminated in the ninth count on Sunday night, and friends said he would have been consoled that the distribution of his votes had helped People Before Profit-Solidarity councillor Brian McCarthy to defeat library protester Ross Lahive.

Sinn Féin’s decision to run three candidates in the Cork City North West ward worked against him, with Mr Nugent losing out to first-time candidate Michelle Gould.

Mr Nugent was first co-opted to the council for the north-west ward in 2011, when Jonathan O’Brien was elected to the Dáil.

He topped the poll in 2014, but when the party ran him in the north-east ward in 2019, Mr Nugent failed to be elected, and was co-opted back into the north-east ward when Thomas Gould was elected to Dáil Éireann in 2020.

Speaking to The Echo in the immediate aftermath of Sunday night’s final count, Mr Nugent was philosophical about the result.

“Some might have said it was an ambitious strategy running three candidates, even though we did run three in 2019, but it was a strategy based on the most solid grounds,” he said.

“We definitely thought that we would be in the hunt for three seats, I think we ran a very good campaign, we had a strategy between myself, Kenneth and Michelle, but looking at the national picture, we probably needed to be a few points higher to win the three seats.”

With Sinn Féin’s recent slide in polls, he said, they had fallen short in the local elections. “I’m disappointed for myself, but I’m delighted for Kenneth and Michelle, whom I’ve known for a very long time, they’re very good friends and comrades of mine, and I’m delighted that they were elected anyway.

“We’ll drive on like we always do, you know, the slings and arrows of politics, we have a general election on the horizon and we saw how things changed before from 2019 to 2020, and personally I’m still going to be part of that team that hopefully gets Sinn Féin into government and also to renew the campaign for Irish unity as well.”

A Fianna Fáil source from another ward claimed that Mr Nugent had been “shafted” by his own party for the second time in as many elections.

“If I was Mick, I would not be happy at all,” they said.

“They effectively gave Michelle Gould his seat, and no word against her, but Mick is a hardworking rep and a decent guy and he deserved better. He’s mellowed a lot with age and he has proven he can work very effectively with people from different parties.

“It’s a shame to see him lose.”

Asked if he would run again for council, Mr Nugent replied that he would never say never.

“I’ve been a republican activist for over 30 years, elected politics may not have been my first role, I was an activist and I have enjoyed representing people as a councillor, as part of the team.

“Where I’m living in Knocknaheeny and Hollyhill and further afield, there’s a fantastic community there and I’ll always want to work with people, work for people, particularly as part of a broader movement for peace, justice and equality, and that work will continue on.

“I might not be a councillor, but I’ll continue to work on, and I’m still helping people where I can.”