FOR the sixth time Cathal Crowe’s (FF)name appeared on a ballot paper and for the sixth time he was elected.
In advance of the election there was a feeling that with three strong East Clare candidates in the race there wouldn’t be room for them all, and although Timmy Dooley (FF) put in an exceptional performance, there was still enough support to re-elect Crowe, and also to send Joe Cooney (FG) into the Dáil.
Crowe took 8,261 first preferences, 13.5% of all the votes that was available to candidates.
During the count he was sometimes in second position and sometimes third, but he ended up taking the second seat after getting 920 votes back from Eddie Punch (II), pushing him over the quota.
There were the usual scenes of delight after his election was confirmed, while he embraced Timmy Dooley on the floor of the West County and even sang a few bars of the ballad Grace with Ennis councillor Pat Daly, much to the delight of dozens of Fianna Fáil supporters gathered around them.
The Meelick man lost his mother in law due to a tragic accident in early November and she was in his thoughts on the night.
“I’d dedicate this win to the team around me, but also my late mother-in-law Mary,” he said.
“She was a proud Fianna Fáil woman, an incredible woman, I do believe in an afterlife and I think she has been looking over our family and the wider campaign as this went on.
“It has been tough but parts of it have been enjoyable. It’s the greatest honour you can have to stand in an election, to be on a ballot paper, to have a mandate and represent people.
“I thank everyone who felt I did a decent job over the last few years and was worthy of re-election.”
Few political observers would argue that Crowe is not a hard worker and he had plans to hold clinics in Shannon by the weekend.
“I’ll be back doing clinics this week and that won’t stop until the next election comes around. My office was a new entity five years ago but we are the flagbearers of the county now for quality of work and getting back to people and we will continue that,” he said.
He said it had been a very intense campaign, which started in the spring.
“This is my sixth election, four for the Council and two for the Dáil and thankfully I’ve prevailed in all of them, but it’s a tough game. I hope we never bring in electronic voting, because the transparency is so important, the transferable vote is massively important,” he said.
“I did find this campaign tough. We’ve been on the road since March, we started then for the local elections, we were out nightly, we took a break in the summer for four or five weeks and went at it again. The other break was for the bereavement. I found that very tough.
“We literally went from burying my beautiful mother-in-law straight into a campaign. I found it nightmarish, but my friends and supporters were incredible. We doubled down and got most of the ground covered for a finish.
“There was an incredible backroom team that met every second or third night to strategise on who to have with us and where to go and I think we just about got it right. My vote more or less held up to what it was five years ago. Donna McGettigan was very competitive in my area as was Joe Cooney.
“Eddie Punch is just a couple of miles up the road. I had all of that to contend with and there were suggestions put out wrongly that I was safe which also took a bit of a scelp of a vote off me.”
He said the traditional canvassing had been the basis of his campaign.
“We went back to traditional campaigning. I do use social media, unapologetically, but I did a lot of traditional campaigning as I have always done, I won’t be changing my modus operandi anytime soon. I was schooled in the art of politics by Willie O’Dea,
“I won’t change my style, it’s the type of politics I like and I’m going to stay authentic to who I am and the people who elected me.”
A county councillor at the age of 21 and a TD before he was 40, he is still ambitious.
“I hope at some point in my career I’ll be elevated to higher office, that being the office of minister. It’s the prerogative of the party leader if I’m chosen on this occasion or not,” he said. “I was given two briefs to mind over the last couple of years, tourism and aviation, and I gave it my all in both. I’d be very respectful of the officer of leader but of course if I were asked to serve as minister I’d be delighted.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.