Who was elected in your area?: Fermoy

Sat, 15 Jun, 2024 - 08:00

Bill Browne

THE Fermoy LEA count was always going to be a drawn-out affair, with 15 candidates vying for six seats.

On paper, it was one of the electoral areas that had the potential to provide some surprises, and one of those was the strong showing for sitting former Fianna Fáil councillor William O’Leary, who ran as an Independent.

His poll of 2,920 first-preference votes saw him exceed the quota by an impressive 562 votes, much to the delight of his large following of family and friends at the Mallow count centre.

The Rathcormac native candidly admitted he was as surprised as anyone at his showing.

“I never ever thought I would top the poll,” said Mr O’Leary.

“You never think that way. You take any seat you get. Of course I am very humbled by the vote that I got. I’d like to think that’s testament to the hard work I have put in over the past five years.”

Asked if his strong vote could possibly lead to a stab at a Dáil seat, Mr O’Leary said his focus would remain purely on local issues.

Sitting Fine Gael councillor Noel McCarthy also crossed the line on the first count, racking up 2,624 first-preference votes.

“It was a tough campaign,” said Mr McCarthy. “Even though the Government parties might say they have not been suffering, it was evident that people wanted us to listen. People are angry about issues such as immigration, health, and housing.”

He said that it needed to be recognised that county councillors have limited powers and their role is primarily about making representations on behalf of their constituents.

“But I think those representations are vitally important. We are facing a general election soon and what we are hearing as councillors on the ground has to be taken into consideration. We have to feed that back to Government,” said Mr McCarthy.

Mayor of County Cork, Frank O’Flynn, had to wait until Monday morning to hear the formal declaration that he had regained his seat on the fourth count and avoided what he called the “mayor’s curse”.

“Four previous sitting county mayors have lost their seats on election day in the past, so I was very conscious of that,” said Mr O’Flynn.

However, he did recognise that wearing the mayoral chain in election year had its advantages.

“No doubt about it. I’ve had an extremely busy year attending events across the county. I found that at every door I went to, people knew me."

Now going into his 26th year as a Cork county councillor, it was evident Mr O’Flynn has lost none of the drive that first got him elected to the local authority more than a quarter of a century ago.

“I was elected first in 1999 and still love every second of every hour of every day. People voted on my record in this election. My next election starts today.”

It was not until Sunday evening, after the eighth count was announced, that Fianna Fáil’s Deirdre O’Brien was triumphantly hoisted upon the shoulders of family and supporters after securing the fourth seat.

She told The Echo that her priorities included getting a wastewater treatment plant for Mitchelstown and new housing for the town.

Shortly before 10pm on Sunday night Neilus Cotter (FF) and Peter O’Donoghue (Ind) took the final two seats.

Elected: