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IT was a case of third time lucky for Cathy McCafferty. The Sinn Féin member finally achieved her dream as she claimed the seventh seat on Shannon Town Council. The Derry native failed in her attempt to get elected in 1999 and 2004, but her luck changed this time around.

McCafferty — who has lived in Shannon for the past 24 years — lost by just eight votes in 2004, but felt that her more energetic campaign this year was the telling factor in winning her seat. McCafferty picked up 244 first preferences and was elected in the fourth count, having received transfers which brought her to 393 votes.

“Tam absolutely over the moon. I cant believe I’ve done it at last,” she SrnLO

Her success is no surprise as she was expected to pick up the lion’s share of the Sinn Féin vote in Shan- non, after Mike McKee — an In- dependent candidate but a former member of Sinn Féin — decided not to seek re-election.

However, she dismissed suggestions that she benefited from Mr McKee’s decision. “There’s a big Sinn Fein vote in Shannon. I don’t think that interfered with it at all. I only lost by eight votes last time around and I put in a bigger campaign this time. I started last August,” she said.

Another new face on the council will be Fine Gael’s Mary Brennan, who took the fifth seat, having se- cured 252 first preferences. She was elected on the third count, with 384 votes — four above the surplus of 380 — in her first election.

Brennan, a native of Mayo, has lived in Shannon for more than two decades and works in the health cen- tre in the town.

The mother-of-three was shocked to learn that 252 people had voted ome

“T couldn’t even think of 54 who would vote for me. I didn’t under- Stand all the transfers,” said the new- comer to politics.

‘“T have had a ball, from the start to finish. I really didn’t think I had that much of a hope,” she said.

Her decision to run in the election came after her friend Councillor

Tony Mulcahy suggested it to her.

“Tony asked me at a wedding. I thought he was having me on. I’ve al- ways been interested 1n community. I felt a bit of new blood wouldn’t go astray,’ she said.

Although Labour increased their vote from 10 to 15 per cent, it wasn’t enough to gain a seat as their third

candidate Polish native Anna Ku- likowska did poorly, with just 37 first RACES Gee

Sitting councillor Tony McMahon won the fourth seat, while Greg Duff was also returned to the council, tak- ing the sixth seat.

“Labour would have expected to increase this time with the backlash there against Fianna Fail. We got a very good increase so we are quite happy,’ said McMahon.

‘We ran a third person for two rea- sons. The Labour party wanted to run a female candidate and to give the new Irish population the oppor- tunity to vote for a candidate,’ he added.

McMahon had, in the past, threat- ened to quit the Labour party, ex- pressing frustration with the lead- ership. However, he told

THE bitter disappointment felt by Fianna Fail’s Peter Considine at los- ing the seat he held on Clare County Council for 35 years will be softened by a Government pay-out of over €40,000.

He will receive the highest amount of the four councillors who failed to get re-elected to the county council and now qualify for the Govern- ment’s retirement gratuity scheme for councillors.

Last December, the council set aside a fund of €250,000 for coun- cillors who retired or failed to recap- ture their seat in the local elections.

Cllr Considine became a councillor in 1974 and had a proud record of be- ing re-elected at every election since over the 35-year period.

However, the backlash against Fi- anna Fail in urban areas along with the carving up of the old Ennis elec- toral area put paid his prospects al- lowing Kilmaley’s Tom McNamara to grab the Fianna Fail seat in Ennis West.

Cllr Considine had also to over- come a recent serious illness to con- test last Friday’s election.

Although he retained his seat on Ennis Town Council, he will still avail of the pay-out for the loss of his county council seat.

Under the scheme, councillors who have served since the 1999 local elec- tions will receive around €30,000 as the retirement gratuity guarantees €3,300 per annum since 2000 and a lower scale prior to 2000.

Fianna Fail’s Tom Prendeville who lost out in the Kilrush electoral area but was re-elected to Kilrush Town Council can expect a gratuity in ex- cess of €35,000 after serving on the county council for 18 years.

Party colleague Bernard Hanrahan from Clarecastle who lost out in En- nis East became a member of Clare County Council in 1995 and he can also expect a gratuity in excess of €30,000.

The only Fine Gael councillor to

lose his seat, Cllr John ‘Mashen’ McInerney can expect a pay out of around €16,500 as he was only elected in 2004.

Four other councillors who retired and decided not to contest the elec- tion will also receive the gratuity.

They are the current mayor, Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG), two former mayors, Cllr Flan Garvey (FF), Cllr Colm Wiley (FF) and Cllr

Martin Lafferty (Ind).

Cllr Lafferty will receive the high- est amount of the councillors who announced their decision to retire prior to the election. He was elected in 1974 as a Labour councillor and remained with Labour before his subsequent election as an independ- ent.

Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn was elected in 1979 along with Cllr W1-

ley, while Cllr Garvey was elected in I ee

The key distinction in the new scheme from the Government’s 1999 ‘scrappage scheme’ for councillors is that those councillors who avail of the gratuity next year are free to con- test any future local election.

Nationally, the payout for council- lors could top €10 million and this would be more three times what

former Environment Minister, Dick Roche estimated the scheme would cost when he announced it in De- cember 2006.

Before the count – Tally Timeline

Clare hurlers get their game on

BALLY VAUGHAN residents have told Clare County Council they want to keep the water supply they have and only use the new €5 million scheme currently under construction as a back-up.

The Ballyvaughan Development Committee has been campaigning for two years to have the new scheme abandoned. Less than a month ago, Clare County Council confirmed its commitment to finishing the scheme which will connect the local supply to Lickeen Lake in Ennistymon and decommissioning the indigenous supply at Newtown.

The new scheme is being construct- ed to allow the council to maintain the supply to Ballyvaughan within EU drinking water standards.

But residents of the area don’t want the new scheme and say their exist- ing water is just fine.

A spokesman for the committee said that the Likeen Lake source “measure for measure at many levels falls short of the quality of our own water’.

At a meeting last week, residents unanimously passed a_ resolution which has been sent to Clare County Council, calling for the existing Bal- lyvaughan water supply to “be up- graded to a level of complete accept- ability by Clare County Council, in accordance with EU standards” and that “Clare County Council commit to the upkeep and maintenance of

that supply in accordance with EU standards”.

The group also called for the ex- isting supply be channelled via a separate pipe other than the Lake Lickeen supply and that “this newly upgraded indigenous supply serve as

the primary water supply for the Bal- lyvaughan community” and that “an appropriate interchange valve system be inserted in the respective supply lines so as to facilitate their function as mutually operating auxiliary sup- plies in the event of back-up being

needed for either supply”.

Above: The proposed Ballyvaughan water scheme has come in for criti- cism from residents.

THERE were tears from Geraldine Lambert, a prepared speech from Sean Hillery, while Mike McKee reminisced about being arrested sev- eral years ago, as a Sinn Féin activist. Emotions ran high as three outgoing Shannon town councillors made their final speeches at their last ever meet- ing last Tuesday.

More than two decades of involve- ment in Shannon Town Council came to a close as the three council- lors decided not to seek re-election to the local authority. Nostalgia was in abundance as tributes were also paid to town manager Ger Dollard, who is moving to Ennis, and town clerk Tomas MacCormaic, whose re- tirement will take effect later in the summer, after 27 years in the post.

Fianna Fail Town Councillor Sean Hillery – who was also a county councillor between 1985 and 2004 – said he had thoroughly enjoyed the past 24 years of public life and said the town council was a “totally dif- ferent kettle of fish” to the county council. “In the county council we were pulled and dragged. In Shan- non it was a community effort,” he said.

“T can relax in the knowledge that I helped or tried to help every person who came to me looking for help,” said Mr Hillery.

He said when he is asked why he is retiring, he explains to those enquir- ing, “I feel I’ve given enough. I have other ideas in my head that I want pursue,” he said.

He said Mr MacCormaic was “more than a town clerk to me. Tomas was a friend from college, a friend from my youth. He is very straight, upfront.”

Independent councillor Mike Mc- Kee said he was “for the last time speaking here after 24 years.” He said that while there were some good

times, he could not remember any bad times.

He recalled, with humour, the lifting of the broadcasting ban on members of Sinn Féin speaking in the media in Ireland. “I think I was the first Sinn Fein person to speak on radio, Clare FM. When Caimin Jones asked me the first question, my lips just froze. I was like a robot. He couldn’t deci- pher what I said,” he recalled.

The former Sinn Féin councillor said that over the 24 years, he just missed two meetings out of 240. “One I was arrested as a Sinn Féin activist. They wouldn’t let me make a second phone call,’ he recalled.

Geraldine Lambert fought back the tears as she bid farewell to her days on the council, telling her colleagues it was “an absolute privilege” to work alongside them.

Fine Gael councillor Tony Mulc- ahy’s words rang true: “Half of us won’t be here in September.” Five of the 11 people around the table – the nine councillors, manager and clerk – will no longer be part of it all in the

autumn.

Mr Mulcahy said Mr Dollard’s de- parture was Shannon’s loss, but En- nis’ gain, while he referred to Mr MacCormaic as “a kind of monu- ment in the town hall.”

His party colleague Sean McLough- lin addressed Mr Dollard and said he was “definitely a people’s person. Whatever you did you did for the sake of the people and of the town, not for the council.”

Independent councillor Patricia McCarthy said she had the pleasure and honour of serving with the three outgoing councillors since they were first elected more than 20 years ago. “They were incisive, but they were never divisive. Whenever we hit a wall we worked to solve it,’ she said. She said Mr Dollard was very hon- est, open and receptive to dealing with people, while Mr MacCormaic was a diligent town clerk who did his job “without fear or favour.”

58 The Hawthorns, is a beautifully presented three-bedroom (three bathroom) end property, overlooking a large and well-maintained green area, located just off the Limerick Road, close to the bypass.

On the books with Costelloe Estate Agents, this property is priced to sell at €199,500.

The selling agent said, “It is in walk-in condition and occupies a private site with a lovely south-fac- ing rear garden, with two patio areas which are sun traps in the afternoon and evening.”

This family home offers high standard finishes, including a mix of timber, carpet and tiled flooring,

a quality fitted kitchen, utility and wardrobe units and partially tiled bathrooms.

The spacious accommodation ex- tends to 110.5 sq. metres. (1,090 sq. ft.) and comprises an entrance hall, living room, kitchen/dining room, utility and guest WC – all on the ground floor.

Upstairs, the large master bedroom runs the width of the house and fea- tures extensive built-in wardrobes and a large en-suite, with a further two bedrooms and the family bath- room also on this level.

The property is being sold with in- tegrated electrics, curtains and light fittings and a garden shed.

Councillors say goodbyes

DNG O’Sullivan Hurley has put the stunning show house at the Gort Na Coulle development at Ballynote, Kilrush, on the market priced at €250,000.

Also available in this very attrac- tive, low-density development of only eight houses is a detached prop- erty priced at €239,000 and a semi- detached, priced at €210,000.

The showhouse offers particularly good value for money as it has been fully finished to a very high standard and is very tastefully decorated.

Built by ANC Construction Devel- opments, Gort Na Coille comprises four detached and four semi detached houses located on the Kilimer Road within easy reach of Kilrush town and all local amenities.

The area is renowned for sport and leisure facilities, including a superb yacht marina in the town, golf cours- es, fishing and the wonderful Vanda- leur Gardens, which are within stroll- ing distance of this development.

The internal accommodation in these houses is particularly spacious, with well-proportioned rooms, mak- ing them ideal family homes. The detached house extends to 1800 sq. ft. of floor space.

Features include a cut roof with Stairs access to the attic space, which

also has a Velux window. The houses are painted externally, while inside the ceilings are painted. There are timber, oak veneered internal doors and architraves, while the stairs is made from red deal.

Other finishes include a tarmac drive, PVC double glazed windows, and the gardens are top soiled and

raked. The developers are also offer- ing generous PC sums for the kitchen and reception room fireplace.

For further information contact DNG O’Sullivan Hurley on: 065 68 40200.

Clare still flying the Blue Flags