This article is from page 13 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 13 JPG
TONY Mulqueen was taking defeat in his stride on Saturday night after losing his seat on Clare County Council.
Mulqueen was eliminated on the 9th count and despite being surprised by his early ejection, Mulqueen wasn’t feeling too despondent.
“I didn’t see it coming. I had a good canvass. I had a good team. Everything seemed to be on course. That’s politics. In 2004 I was short by 41 votes. I was elected in 2009 and I was rejected this year. That’s politics. That’s life,” recalled the local businessman.
Standing in a quiet corner of the West County Hotel, away from the count centre, Mulqueen said he would analyse the vote to see where it all went wrong
“I think this election was so tight and with such a large number of people that the number two votes I might have got from other candidates – that hadn’t gone over the quota – those votes weren’t coming back to me,” offered Mulqueen, who was one of six Fine Gael candidates in the Ennis area.
“That’s life. There is no one dead. I’m alive. I welcomed into the world this year my second grandchild and I’m happy with that. I’m fine,” he added.
Mulqueen also did not shut the door completely on contesting again in 2019.
He said, “I’ve a huge interest in politics. I only got involved in politics late in life after my family had grown up and I could give it the time. For five years, I worked at it. I worked hard at it. I was elected during a recession in 2009…We’re maybe com- ing out of recession now, who knows. Who knows what will happen in five years time.”
Commenting on his steady showing in the Ennis electoral area, Labour candidate Dermot Hayes accepted it was always going to be difficult for the party to win a seat in Clare.
The local community activist was eliminated on the 16th count after taking in 671 votes. “As they say on the pitch, the wind was well against us”, remarked Hayes on Saturday. “At the same time we should have been proud of ourselves that we went out there and fought away. We’ll still be active in the community. I will always remain active in the community.
“We have to sit down and regroup and see what we are doing. Populism is grand but the reality is that hard choices had to be made, whether we liked it or not”, he added.