Success at last: Long wait over as Cremin and Tynan taste victory

IF A week is a long time in politics, then 30 years must be an eternity.

Just ask the Workers’ Party’s Ted Tynan.

And if at first you don’t succeed then try, try, again. Just ask Sinn Féin’s Henry Cremin.

Both men were among the left wave that swept through Cork’s City Hall at the weekend.

For Tynan, it was a return to familiar territory. In 1979, he was elected to the then Cork Corporation. Now, three decades later, he’s back in City Hall.

And for Henry Cremin, it’s the breakthrough he has been waiting 15 years for. A veteran of one general election, one by-election and three local elections, he has at last won a seat on the city council.

Ted Tynan took the fourth and final seat in Cork North East early yesterday. He said he was humbled and honoured, but said the problems he encountered as a councillor 30 years ago are still there.

“During my canvass since February, many of the issues we were highlighting in 1979 still seem to be there,” he said. “I blame central government. It is starving the local authority of essential funds.”

He remains concerned about the number of vacant council homes, particularly in Mayfield and the Glen.

Model Farm Road-based Henry Cremin, who took the fifth of Cork South West’s six seats, said he was “delighted and euphoric” to at last make the breakthrough.

His promise to the people who elected him is that he will demand transparency and swift answers from officials in City Hall.