Local elections: Everything you need to know about the Macroom constituency
Posters up for local candidates in the elections in Macroom vying for space on the lamp posts with a circus. Picture: Dan Linehan
- Harriet Burgess – Green Party
- Martin Coughlan – Ind
- Michael Creed – FG
- Dermot Kelleher – Independent Ireland
- Michael Looney – FF
- Ted Lucey – FG
- Eileen Lynch – FG
- Gobnait Moynihan – FF
- Rosaire O’Leary - Aontu
- John O’Sullivan - SF
There are a few ‘legal eagles’ circling in an effort to swoop down and grab some of the six seats on offer in this area — a barrister, solicitor, a former experienced legal secretary — and they are all women.
First-time hopeful Green Party candidate Harriet Burgess, a barrister who studied in Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, is on the ballot paper alongside Fine Gael sitting councillor and solicitor Eileen Lynch and political newcomer and Aontú candidate Rosarie O’Leary, who in her past has been a very experienced legal secretary.
The newcomers will have to make a significant breakthrough if they are to dislodge some of the incumbents, but nothing is impossible.
It’s one of the most conservative (with a small c) municipals in the county, let alone the country, but Sinn Féin will be doing their level best to make a breakthrough here and former Labour, now Independent councillor Martin Coughlan, is also very much in the running to garner left-wing votes.
The two big towns in the municipal district are Macroom and Millstreet. The majority of its current sitting councillors come from the Macroom area. But it would be a huge surprise if a candidate isn’t elected this time from the northern side of the municipality.
The Macroom-based ‘big three’ councillors will take some dislodging though and two of them have significant party machines behind them.
Fine Gael’s Michael Creed is a cousin of the same-named local TD and will have huge canvassing support behind him.
His running-mate in the town is Ted Lucey who's been a town councillor before they were disbanded and then went on to become a county councillor.
During that time, he has built up a strong support base. He will also benefit greatly from the local Fine Gael machine, although he only managed to squeeze in for the sixth seat in 2019.
He served on the town council for 15 years and has been a member of the county council for 10. During that time he’s been chairman of the town council twice and is outgoing chairman of the municipal council.
The “part-time farmer, full-time councillor,” as he describes himself, said having served for 25 years: “I have the experience and work ethic to continue to deliver if I am re-elected as a member of Cork County Council."
Then there’s Martin Coughlan. A one-time Labour councillor who went independent at the last local election, he is very popular in Macroom, being a former town councillor and the UDC’s foreman there for many years.
Fianna Fáil councillor Gobnait Moynihan, who lives in Ballyvourney, is the sister of TD Andrias Moynihan. The Moynihan family has had serving TDs and councillors since the foundation of the State and therefore has a very strong canvassing team.
She will pick up traditional FF votes all over the constituency and will also do well with Irish-speakers in the Gaelacht areas.
Notably Ms Moynihan has lobbied a lot for council money for projects in the Millstreet area, so she should also pick up some cross-party votes from there.
Her running-mate is sitting councillor Michael Looney. He got elected in 2019 after becoming a full-time politician having left his main job as the owner of a very successful car sales and repair garage in Berrings.
He said the main issues he’s getting on the doorsteps are the state or roads, the proliferation of illegal dumping in remote areas and the slow progress of broadband roll-out in the region.
As a former member of the board of management in Berrings National School, he’s also acutely aware of special needs students, having successfully campaigned for additional units/teachers for them there.
He’s been lobbying Education Minister Norma Foley to provide better supports for such students as they transition into secondary schools.
Sinn Féin is running John O’Sullivan, who hails from Millstreet.
The party is without a seat in the county council at present after the announcement some time ago that councillor Danielle Twomey (East Cork Municipal District), its sole representative, had resigned from Sinn Féin and gone to the ranks of the Independents.
In theory, if the Sinn Féin vote comes out he should be in contention. He is also well positioned geographically as there are far fewer opponents on the northern end of the municipal district to distract him and if he is in the running initially first preferences transfers will be important to him to keep in the race.
O’Sullivan says that housing is one of the big issues on the doorstep and it’s a region that has too many boarded-up properties and too many rigid planning laws, especially in rural areas, which he wants relaxed.
Another issue which has cropped up already is the functioning of South-Doc in the region and while councillors are not directly responsible for the out of hours service, it’s certainly been the subject of many complaints Mr O’Sullivan and others have been receiving.
In 2019, Fine Gael’s Eileen Lynch was elected a first-time councillor gaining the area’s fifth seat. The solicitor, who lives in Aghabollogue, has taken a career break from working with Jerome A McCarthy & Co in Cork City.
She said she’s delighted that “there’s less aggression on the doorsteps than I thought there might be.” “It’s going quite well. Generally people are quite positive,” the former secretary general of the Youth of Europe People’s Party added.
Green Party candidate Harriet Burgess probably has one of the most impressive legally trained CVs of any candidate in the local elections in Cork, even if not the whole country.
Burgess, 31, a barrister, who is Inniscarra-born and bred, got her educational grounding at Coláiste Choilm in Ballincollig and went on to study at Trinity College, Dublin and then qualified as a barrister at the King’s Inn in Dublin.
She also possesses a Masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Oxford University in England.
There’s political ancestry there too: Her grandmother, Kathleen Leddin, was a well-known Independent politician from Limerick.
“I decided to run (for the Greens) because I had become extremely frustrated by the lack of change in the area (despite numerous constituents’ complaints on the ground) in terms of buses not running on time, terrible roads and problems with the environment which are not being addressed,” Burgess said.
The other ‘legal eagle’ in the field is Rosarie O’Leary, who is running for Aontú. She is the eldest of seven and worked as a legal secretary for many years, but is currently involved in education.
O’Leary lives in a very rural community between the villages of Ballingeary and Inchigeela in the parish of Uibh Laoire — the ancestral home of the O’Leary’s.
“I live with my mother, and I have three sisters and three brothers. I worked as a legal secretary for 20 years. I am fast approaching a half century of life and find myself, quite unexpectedly, looking for a seat on the council,” she said.
O’Leary added that ‘core values’ are important to her and that’s why she joined Aontú.
“I began to see that my values were no longer represented in the political sphere and in fact they were being discarded. And I was not alone. Aontú was formed to meet this need. The party has just one sitting TD, Peadar Tóibín, and I continue to be impressed by his intellect, energy, focus and vision for Ireland,” she added.
Outside work, she says she enjoys, “music, theatre, history, the occasional evening course and travel.”
The recently formed Independent Ireland is running a former president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).
Dermot Kelleher could throw a spanner in the works and win a seat as he's likely to get a lot of farming votes and transfers from other candidates on the somewhat crowded southern side of the region.
If Kelleher, who is a suckler farmer from the Inchigeelagh area, gets a half decent amount of first preferences to keep him in the race then anything is possible.
It will, however, be very hard to dislodge most of the six sitting councillors in this municipal district because of what has been achieved in the area recently and what's ringfenced for further advances.
They can, with some justification, along with their council officials, take a lot of credit for the amount of money which has poured into projects in the area in recent years.
The big one was the opening of the Macroom bypass. In addition, huge grant-aid has been gained from various government departments for many projects.
These include the highly impressive revamp of the iconic Macroom Briery Gap Theatre, which was gutted by a major fire in 2016, and a multi-million euro planned upgrade of its town centre and environs.
Any new councillors getting elected will be on a ‘legacy roll’ from the start.
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