This article is from page 17 of the 2006-06-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
CHARLIE HAUGHEY wasn’t even Taoiseach at the time, but that didn’t stop him being made a freeman of Kilrush in 1985. The man who was born in Mayo, of Derry extraction, raised a Dub and an islander off Kerry, was at once a man of Clare.
Honorary citizenship was conferred upon Haughey as part of the centenary celebrations of Kilrush Urban Council on December 13 that year. To the Fianna Fáil leader, who was out of government office at the time, went the honour of wrapping up the town’s year-long centenary celebrations.
“Your success as a politician needs little comment and your work rate as a public representative has been enormous, since you first held public office in 1953,” said council chairperson, Cissie Roughan, at the ceremony.
Responding, Haughey looked at past and present. “During the 100 years which have passed since the first meeting of the council on July 3, 1885, in John Reidy’s house on Francis Street, one is struck very forcibly by the radical changes, economic and social, that have occurred over the period,” he said.
“Not all of these changes were to the benefit of the area. Traditional industries disappeared, leading to large-scale unemployment and heavy emigration. But the spirit of the people of west Clare was not broken.
“The faith in themselves, which the people of Kilrush have continued against the odds, is now beginning to bear fruit,” he said.