John Paul O'Shea: ‘The Daniel O’Donnell of politics’ charms his way across Cork NW
HE’S dubbed by fellow county councillors the “Daniel O’Donnell of Cork politics” and out on the hustings the wee cup of tea is never far away.
Mayor of County Cork, John Paul O’Shea, is running as an Independent in Cork North-West and is given a very good chance of winning one of its three seats.
When it comes to getting votes from “women of a certain age” the councillor has it sown up. This was evident on the campaign trail yesterday where a warming cup of tea was on offer in most houses, and particularly welcome in the likes of Nadd and Banteer where the snow was coming down.
Carmel Kelly, one of a four-woman canvass team accompanying the 32-year-old, summed up the Danielesque appeal. “When he was growing up he was a very likeable young fella. Women want to mother him. He’s a nice country fella and every mother would love a son like John Paul,” Carmel said.
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In Ballincollig, which is outside of his rural comfort zone, he nevertheless he managed to work the charm with some shoppers.
Joan Philpott, a retired nurse, had never met him before, but after a few minutes she was converted. A Fianna Fáil voter in the past she won’t forgive them for what they did to the economy and isn’t too enamoured of Fine Gael either. “I was searching for an Independent and I’m very impressed with him. He’s a very straight talker. I’ll give him a number one,” Joan said.
John Paul strode over to three other female pensioners sitting on a bench in the shopping centre. Unfortunately none of them were from his constituency, but he still chatted away to them for several minutes.
Norma Moloney is from the constituency and said she’d give him a vote, but maybe not a first preference. He replied he’d be grateful for anything at all.
John Paul knows he needs to get votes out of Ballincollig — the largest population centre in the constituency — and from all age groups, “We’ve canvassed Ballincollig three times so far and I think I’m doing quite well with the younger voters. There’s a young population here and they say they don’t to want to talk to older politicians. I’m hoping to make some gains here.”
He first got involved in politics in 2005 when his local post office in Lombardstown faced closure. A campaign was launched to save it, which soon went national and resulted four years later in 260 small post offices getting computerised.
He may not have Daniel’s singing talent, but could put it up to Michael Flatley on the dance floor. In his home village of Laharn, he’s become synonymous with Dancing at the Crossroads, which his parents started off. “I’m involved with it for 18 years now and have taught set dancing for 12 years,” he said.
As soon as Maryanne O’Sullivan opened her door in Banteer the offer of the cuppa was made and a by now frozen mayor was glad to accept. Maryanne said she had a stroke five years ago and found John Paul’s aid invaluable. “He helped me get the services I needed [housing adaptation grant]. I’ll give him a number one. I’ll vote for whoever did good for me and my family,” the grandmother said.
He was elected to the county council in 2009 with 1,859 first preference votes. In the June 2014 he increased that vote to a staggering 4,374 votes. It was the third highest in the country for the local election and the highest for any independent.
Other parties fear O’Shea, who could be already home and dry if it wasn’t for the presence of another significant independent on the voting paper — Ballyhea Say No’s Diarmuid O’Flynn.
There’s no voting pact between them or the other two Independents running in the constituency. However, John Paul believes they’ll transfer between each other nevertheless.
He doesn’t say whose seat he’s targetting, but the weakest sitting candidate is FG’s Aine Collins. Her party colleague Michael Creed and FF’s Michael Moynihan are seen as bankers in this staunchly conservative constituency.
Irish Water may be an issue in the urban areas, but in the rural hinterland it’s unemployment, lack of housing, the state of the roads, and crime which top the voters’ agenda.
“A few weeks ago we had a number of people knocking on doors in the Banteer area pretending to be from Irish Water, the council, ESB etc. People are scared and worried about Garda station closures and Garda numbers,” he said.
“The Celtic Tiger passed these rural areas by. We’re trying to encourage people to open up their own businesses but the broadband in parts of the northern end of the constituency is so bad they simply can’t do that.”
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