Mick Clifford: Everything you need to know about the race to be Limerick mayor
Conor Sheehan (Labour), Brian Leddin (Green Party), Daniel Butler (Fine Gael), Maurice Quinlivan (Sinn Féin), host Katie Hannon, Elisa O’Donovan (Social Democrats), Ruairí Fahy, (PBP-Solidarity), Frankie Daly (Independent), and Dee Ryan (Fianna Fáil) at the ‘Upfront with Katie Hannon’ TV debate on the Limerick mayoral election which took place at the Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick. Picture: Don Moloney
- Sarah Beasley: Aontú
- Daniel Butler: FG
- Frankie Daly: Independent
- Ruairí Fahy: PBP/S
- Laura Keyes: Rabharta
- Brian Leddin: Green Party
- John Moran: Independent
- Caitríona Ní Chatháin: Socialist Party
- Helen O’Donnell: Independent
- Elisa O’Donovan: Social Democrats
- Colm Ó’Móráin: Independent
- Maurice Quinlivan: Sinn Féin
- Dee Ryan: FF
- Conor Sheehan: Labour
- Gerben Uunk: The Animal Welfare Party
A Traveller Pride event might not be the most likely place to find a stereotypical Fine Gael election candidate. Yet Helen O’Donnell looks perfectly at home at the event in Kilmallock, Co Limerick.
Of course, she is not a Fine Gael candidate but is instead running for the novel office of Limerick mayor under a ‘community’ ticket. She is, however, Fine Gael royalty around these parts.
Confused? Wait until we really click into gear with the musical political chairs in this race.
O’Donnell is accompanied by her sister Louise at the event in the town’s Coote Hall Resource Centre under a steely sky that spits rain every now and again. There is a Traveller wagon on display and a photographic exhibition portraying the Traveller tradition locally and nationally. Inside the centre various literature and artefacts including a Traveller history project are on display, providing exposure to a tradition that is rich yet inexplicably undervalued.
Helen O’Donnell is tall with an easy manner and a warm smile. She arrives at the event with no fuss and immediately mingles while admiring the wagon.
Despite never having run for public office she is perfectly at home on the campaign trail. She looks like she’s been doing it all her life, which she has for a good chunk of it as her late husband Tom was a Limerick TD for 26 years, including a spell at cabinet, and a decade doubling as an MEP.
Fine Gael runs deep in the family. Tom’s uncle Richard was a Cumann na nGaedheal TD in the 1920s and his nephew Kieran is a junior minister in the current government.
“The campaign has gone really well,” O’Donnell says.
“We’re three months in and it’s a very unusual campaign, a historic opportunity. The first period of time we had to spend just explaining the role to people because until recently everybody was unaware of what it is supposed to be.”
The electorate is roughly evenly split between city and county. Should this elected office turn out to be a success it is plausible that each local authority area might demand its own elected mayor.
In 2019, the prospect of an elected mayor was offered by plebiscite to Cork, the only city that has its own exclusive local authority area, Limerick, and Waterford. Cork and Waterford demurred. Limerick people decided to go for it.
A sage might suggest the fortunes of the county hurling team have prompted Limerick people to believe they are capable of anything, even electing a city mayor who is not a city mayor.
O’Donnell knows that the family into which she married — she is an O’Connor from Sligo herself originally — is well got throughout the county.
“We have big county towns like here and NewcastleWest and Abbeyfeale, and we have many, many villages, but yes, the central population is in the city,” she says.
“So people are just rethinking in terms of the mayor’s role I suppose. But if I am elected I will be spending as much time in offices out here in Kilmallock as I will be in the city.”
As she is talking, another candidate, Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan, ambles up. Pleasantries are exchanged and Quinlivan heads inside.
There was no falling out between Fine Gael and Helen O’Donnell. Last April, she was present at the selection convention for the party’s Euro election South constituency.
MEP Sean Kelly is a friend of hers. A few days later she resigned her party membership. The usual fare in these matters, competition and bitterness over candidate selection, didn’t apply here. She has for the last 30 years been prominent in Limerick city business and voluntary sectors.
Had she wanted the nomination it would most likely have been handed to her on a plate. So why?
“Well, this is a new structure, new for everybody and you need somebody who can collaborate, who can work with people, and that’s essentially why I’m a community and independent candidate,” she says.
“I want to be able to work equally with every single person and if you look at the council chamber, that’s 40 people and ultimately you all have the same interest so you want to work with them all. It is a presidential-style role, people are actually voting for an ambassador for Limerick, somebody who is representing Limerick nationally and internationally.”
While she has no party machine behind her she is close to JP McManus, who walks on water around these parts. On Friday, McManus, to nobody's surprise, endorsed Ms O'Donnell's candidacy. Locally there are suggestions that the expectations of such a prized endorsement may have influenced her decision to go it alone as McManus would be slow to back a party candidate.
John O’Reilly is tucking into a feed of sandwiches next to the cabin hosting the photo exhibition in Coote Hall. He is a native of Kilmallock and was unaware that at least two of the mayoral candidates were walking among those gathered. Will he vote?
“I don’t know,” he says. “What are they going to be able to do? What do any of them do once they get in?”
Meanwhile, inside Coote Hall Maurice Quinlivan didn’t take long to get into the groove. A bunch of musicians are banging out 'Save The Last Dance For Me'.
A while back it might have been speculated that the Sinn Féin man would waltz into the mayoral office, but his party’s trajectory in the polls has called for a second take on that projection.
The drive along the narrow roads from Kilmallock into the city is a study in election posters. Confusion could easily reign here. It’s not entirely clear who’s running for the mayor, the locals, or the Euro elections.
One of the posters, that of Independent candidate John Moran, stands out from the bunch, done in navy and white. If an artist crafted a poster, this would probably be the best of them. Like Helen O’Donnell, Moran is perceived by some as a product of Fine Gael, although he says this is completely erroneous.
In 2011, he was brought from the private sector into the Department of Finance by then-minister Michael Noonan, another Fine Gael stalwart in Limerick. The following year he was appointed secretary general, a highly unusual elevation of an outsider in the notoriously conservative department.
He left two years later and was subsequently appointed chair of the Land Development Agency. Moran has repeatedly pointed out that his public roles were entirely non-political, filled by candidates perceived to have the relevant experience.
Whether he could transfer that experience and nous to the political arena remains to be seen. He is articulate and highly knowledgeable, but doubts have been expressed about his political skills. The new mayor will have to work with elected councillors in vital matters.
He or she will also have to forge a close relationship with the local authority’s chief executive. The allocation of power and perhaps the suppression of egos will be an important dimension in such relationships.
The job comes with a salary of €154,000 and a budget for the office of around €8m for projects and initiatives. There is provision for a staff of five to be directly employed by the mayor. The most significant power will be in proposing the annual budget to Limerick City and Council.
The councillors will have to approve the budget, which will inevitably lead to the kind of horse-trading that we are accustomed to hearing about in the US between the president and Congress.
This will also be the case with the mayor’s other major power, the crafting of a five-year local development plan. In addition, there will be provision for several meetings with cabinet ministers throughout the year.
The initial proposals had further powers but these were watered down after the Department of Housing — which is overseeing the process — got their hands on it.
Interestingly, the minister charged with bringing the legislation for the new role through the Oireachtas was Limerick man Kieran O’Donnell who, in different circumstances, might have stood as the Fine Gael standard bearer in the race.
This is new for everybody and there is some scepticism that it can work. On the other hand, the State has, since its foundation, had one of the most centralised governments in Europe. Most people agree that there is a crying need for powers to be decentralised and this is a first tentative step. There is also the possibility of conflict with central government over issues such as funding or priorities.
Some mandarins in government, and perhaps some senior politicians, may be quietly content if the whole thing goes belly up. There is, however, a lot riding on it. If it succeeds others will quickly follow, quite possibly leading to a huge shift in governance by Irish standards.
If it fails, highly centralised government will continue and Limerick will lick its wounds.
Another candidate who smiles down from telephone polls is Dee Ryan, the Fianna Fail standard bearer. She also has Fine Gael links, having been a member and canvassed for the party. In 2017, she tweeted that Micheál Martin “was not a leader”.
Her views, she says, have evolved. They’ve done a fair bit of evolving over the years as she was once also associated with the Labour Party.
She is articulate and has behind her a solid career in business. Several times in various election events she mentions that she is a mother of four. Party support could be a factor for her. In the most recent IPSOS opinion poll, FF were at 20% nationally but in Munster at 27%. If that Munster vote, like Munster rugby, congregates around Limerick, she could be in with a shout.
Fine Gael has an official candidate in the race — Councillor Daniel Butler, who already served a term as mayor when it was a ceremonial role. He was a latecomer, but he denies his arm had to be twisted. In March, when Fine Gael had yet to pick a candidate, he told the local radio station Live95 that the party was in no rush because of the field that had already declared.
“You have Helen O’Donnell, you have Dee Ryan, who I canvassed with for Michael Noonan and who was a member of Fine Gael and a secretary for the Fine Gael constituency, and then you have John Moran who was appointed by Michael Noonan,” he said.
“It’s amazing you have all these connections out there already so we’re in no rush.”
It’s unclear whether he was thrilled that so many candidates might share Fine Gael values or whether the shrinking of options was leaving the party flummoxed and all eyes turning to him.
Maurice Quinlivan is not now, nor ever has been, a member of Fine Gael. He has been Sinn Fein TD for Limerick city since 2016. Having arrived back in the city from Kilmallock, he is canvassing the working-class estates off the Island Road in the city.
A couple of the houses are boarded up, giving expression to one of the city’s biggest problems, that of dereliction. This is Sinn Féin heartland. Passing motorists and pedestrians toot and wave at Maurice like he’s the local celebrity.
“Look I gave it some thought,” he says. “I still think there will be a Sinn Féin government next year despite the polls at the moment and if there was, there would probably have to be a minister from the midwest. I think I would have a chance there, so I took that into account.
"But I looked at the power that the mayor can have to change things, and I spoke to different people who were involved in London and for Andy Burnham (in Manchester), and what they said was you can get done so I went for it.”
Quinlivan will do well in the city as he has a record as a solid, if unspectacular, TD. Beyond the city bounds, however, he will be a new entity.
“I’m very happy with the reaction out in the county,” he says.
“It’s the same issues wherever you go, housing in particular and health.”
He has been vocal on the plight of Limerick University Hospital, but the mayor won’t have any powers to shorten waiting lists or bump up emergency services.
“The mayor will be able to talk to government and lobby for the proper services and I will be doing that,” he says.
Many observers are predicting that Quinlivan will top the poll, based on the Sinn Féin vote. But in a field of 15 candidates and one seat on offer, transfers are likely to take on a far greater significance than is usually the case. As the counting continues down through lower preferences, with the field loosening up, he will still be in the leading pack where fate and chance can work their mysterious ways.
The only other TD standing is the Greens’ Brian Leddin. He also has a solid record since his election, but with his party languishing in the polls it would be a big ask for him to make it over the line.
Whoever wins this election will have a serious job on their hands. Dr Theresa Reidy of UCC makes the point that the first person to occupy the new role will be responsible for effectively shaping it in the new political firmament.
“This person will be elected with a very, very large mandate,” the political scientist says.
“She or he will be able to speak at the same level as national politicians because of that kind of legitimacy and hopefully engage at national level. We have an outline of what the post is going to be, but how it works out in practice and how the contours are defined will really depend on the person who is in the role and the first one will be the most significant,” she says.
“And right now it is a very lively contest.”
It is that. Counting gets underway on Monday 10 June, following the count for the Euros. The nature of the electorate and the huge dependence on transfers indicate that a final result is unlikely to become clear before Tuesday night.
Then a new dawn begins for politics in the Mid West.
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