This article is from page 15 of the 2014-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
GABRIEL Keating has hailed himself as “the comeback kid” after retaining his seat on Clare County Council. The Fine Gael councillor emerged victorious from a tightly fought battle for places in the eight seat West Clare Electoral Area.
Despite not reaching the quota, Keating was elected on the 11th count courtesy of votes received from former Fine Gael man Ian Lynch’s surplus.
In doing so, Keating pipped his party colleague Oliver Garry to the final seat.
Such a scenario seemed improbable after the first count, which left Keating with a mountain to climb, but the West clare man never had a moment’s doubt.
“It’s a wonderful feeling. It’s a wonderful achievement. This morning I was at 911 and I jumped to 1590. It’s unbelievable. They’re calling me the comeback kid,” beamed the Cross native as he savoured his triumph at the end of a long weekend in Treacy’s West County count centre.
He continued, “I never thought I was gone. I worked hard for the five years. I put in a great effort. I opened up West Clare to tourism. Loop Head, the whole place came alive. I’m so delighted to be able to do it for the people of my parish. It’s a great honour for me and for my family. They mean everything to me.
“We had storms and we had floods and we had a whole lot things,” said Keating in reference to storm that battered West Clare earlier this year.
“But I can tell you I rode this storm today,” he declared to loud cheers.
Meanwhile, PJ Kelly (FF) was returned without reaching the quote in the West Clare electoral area.
The veteran campaigner was returned for an eight successive election, making him the longest serving councillor on Clare County Council by some distance.
The Lissycasey councillor joked that it had been “cheeky” of him to run for an eight election but also said that there was lessons to be learned from the election.