Youghal’s Mary Linehan-Foley fighting through pain barrier to hunt down the big boys
One Cork East election candidate was having “a whale of a time” on the canvass — until she smashed the car door on her hand.
Despite the pain and a very swollen finger (which could yet turn out to be broken) Mary Linehan-Foley kept pressing the flesh, which sums up the doggedness she’s known for.
“There’s nothing conventional about our Mary,” says one of her canvassers, Ellen Morgan.
“I’m having a whale of a time,” says the Independent candidate as she walks past the Moby Dick pub in her home town of Youghal.
The pub has been in her family since 1880, but was renamed by her late father after the famous film shot there in 1954, which starred Gregory Peck as the obsessive Captain Ahab hunting down a white whale which had destroyed one of his previous ships.
Now Mary is hoping for a whale-sized vote from the people of that town, especially as its local TD, Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan is not seeking re-election. Sinn Féin may have other ideas, however.
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For many years Mary was a Fianna Fáil town councillor, but left the party and successfully won, at her first attempt, a seat on the county council.
“I’m hoping to pick up a good slice of Sandra’s vote,” says Mary, who borrowed €10,000 from her local credit union to fund the campaign. She has local recognition; people come up and hug her all the time.
She gets a big kiss from Myles Clancy, who declares: “She’s local. She’s good and she shoots from the hip.”
Paul Moylan weighs in with: “She does great work for this community. She’s always approachable. We need somebody who will work for us because shops are closing, there’s no investment in the town and no jobs. For the people who have jobs, Youghal is just a dormitory town.”
John Butler, who lives across the River Blackwater in Co Waterford, says he regrets not being able to vote for Mary, but knows his grown-up children will.
“I have a very large canvass team of volunteers,” says Mary. “I don’t take donations for the election, but I did get some help.
“Perks Entertainment Centre provided me with a truck and a driver and John Long of Worldwide Cabs gave me two buses and a driver for two days so I could canvass the north of the constituency.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have bothered with the latter, as the poster on the side of the truck is so big it could nearly be seen from North Cork.
By Youghal’s famous Clock Tower, she is mobbed by three sisters: Mary Cunningham, Esther O’Connor, and Josephine Whelan.
“There’s defintely a No 1 from the three of us,” says Mary. “She’s the only one who’ll do anything for this town,” adds Esther.
Remarkably, Mary hasn’t missed a council meeting since the election was declared.
“I was elected by the people to do their work on the council and while I’m still on it that’s what I’ll do,” she says after a few Panadol to ease the pain in her by now visibly throbbing finger. “I’m lucky as I have an unbelievable team and they have been out for me. They’ve canvassed everywhere in the constituency.
It's all to play for as Election 2016 campaigns enter their final days https://t.co/qJKrzBNKHd (DOD) #GE16 pic.twitter.com/7lsAXaI5Wh
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“I know I’m up against the big boys, but it was always a dream of mine to run for the Dáil since I entered politics 17 years ago. It’s like being in a job and looking for a promotion.
“Even if I don’t make it, I will still be there working for the people in my role as a county councillor.”
Mary is warmly welcomed in the village of Killeagh, but the reception is more mixed in Midleton, considered a stronghold for local councillor Patrick Buckley, who is Sinn Féin’s only candidate in the constituency and who could be in with a shout for the last of the four seats up for grabs.
Colm Power, who works for local bookies Bruce Betting, didn’t know Mary’s odds and, despite having a pleasant chat with the candidate, readily admitted he’s still undecided, but would defintely vote.
“I voted for years for Fianna Fáil, but not this time and definitely not Fine Gael. I’m thinking about Richard Boyd-Barrett’s group, But I’ll think about her,” said Mary Butler.
Desmond Eason and his wife Esther, both of whom are retired, said they’d stick with Fine Gael and Lab “because they did fairly well considering the state of the economy they’d inherited”.
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