Tag Archives: Patricia McCarthy

    Clare Independent Deputy Michael McNamara has made history by becoming the first local MEP in 35 years with an impressive electoral success in Ireland South. The East Clare deputy won the third-highest number of votes after five gruelling days of counting. Going into the final count Deputy McNamara had 87,542 votes ahead of Kathleen Funchion on 82,508, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú on 75,900, Mick Wallace on 73,947 and Grace O’Sullivan, Green Party, 69,197. Following the 20th count, Deputy McNamara 92,871, Ní Mhurchú 92,502 and Funchion 90,070 were elected without reaching the quota. Following the redistribution of Grace O’Sullivan’s votes, Ní Mhurchú confirmed her lead over Wallace, who lost his seat in the European Parliament. Outgoing MEP Sean Kelly (FG) topped the poll in the first count while another MEP Billy Kelleher, (FF) had to wait until the 18th count to be the second candidate to pass the quota. Former IFA President Paddy Lane, Parteen, was elected to the European …

ALL over the country, Sinn Féin’s vote has been growing for years but it was last weekend that the party really started to see results in the Banner County. Perhaps the biggest result of the weekend was Mike McKee’s victory in the Shannon Electoral Area, giving the party its first seat on Clare County Council since PJ Burke triumphed in West Clare in 1974. Patricia McCarthy, who bowed out of the Shannon political scene at this campaign, said she wasn’t overly surprised with the McKee triumph. “Once I saw the way Sinn Féin were going nationwide and the way the polls were going, I had pencilled him in as a possibility.” She felt McKee would get a sizeable amount of number ones due to his years on Shannon Town Council. However, he exceeded her expectations and she hadn’t realised he would draw support from around the municipal district. “I initially thought he might have between 500 and 600 votes that …

By Dan Danaher THE last meeting of Shannon Town Council ended in disarray this week, after a row erupted over the distribution of €111,000 in funding for community projects. Claim and counter-claim were levelled by councillors, who left the meeting early on Tuesday night, after a divisive split emerged concerning counter-proposals over where the last major tranche of funding should be spent in the county’s second largest town. Mayor of Shannon, Councillor Greg Duff was subjected to stinging criticism from Councillor Gerry Flynn and Councillor Michael Fleming, after he used his casting vote to ensure a proposal from Councillor Patricia McCarthy, Mary Brennan and Vincent Coleman was passed by a four-to-three margin. Before he left the meeting, Councillor Flynn declared to Mayor Duff, “Well done, you got your way.” Having supported Councillor Duff in the mayoral election, Councillor Fleming stated he was “disappointed” with the mayor and condemned his decision to use his casting vote as a “disgrace”. However, Mayor …

FORMER Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy has announced that she will not be contesting the Local Elections this May. Currently she is the only female elected representative on Clare County Council. Councillor McCarthy (Independent), who is also a former Mayor of Shannon, has been a member of Clare County Council since 1979 and has been represented on Shannon Town Council since it was first established in 1982. Other high profile local public representatives who have announced this week they will not be seeking re-election include former mayors of Clare and Ennis Town Council, Tommy Brennan and Peter Considine, as well as the current Mayor of Ennis, Mary Coote Ryan. Commenting on her decision, Mrs McCarthy said, “I feel the time is now right for me to step away from politics. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a representative for the Shannon Electoral Area and indeed, for County Clare during my term as Mayor in 2007-2008.  “I want to thank the …

HARSH words and some insults were traded at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, as the emotive issue of high commercial rates for businesses was aired yet again. Independent Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion calling on the county council to rescind fees charged at recycling centres, significantly reduce commercial rates and calling on the Minister for either Finance or the Environment to clarify which specific local services the local property tax is supporting. However, her own voting record was queried by Councillor Patricia McCarthy, who noted that the Derry native had backed increasing the town charge for Shannon from what was originally proposed in the draft budget for 2014. Councillor McCafferty was one of a majority of councillors who last month voted to reduce the town charge from 2.11 to 2.06. However, the original proposal from the council executive had been to cut it to 1.90, before a majority of the members opted to up it, to provide …

DEBATE and disagreement broke out over the scale of the rat problem in Shannon at Tuesday’s town council meeting. There have been numerous complaints about the amount of rats going around the town in recent weeks but at Tuesday’s meeting, there were suggestions that the problem isn’t as bad as has been claimed, something some of the members angrily refuted. At the meeting, Councillor Sean McLoughlin put forward a motion asking that County Council carry out rat baiting on a regular basis in Shannon and for the council to clean out any place where rats might nest. Councillor Cathy McCafferty had another motion requesting that members be informed of what arrangements the council had entered into with regard to pest/rodent control since the last local elections in 2009. The written response to Councillor McLoughlin’s motion from senior executive engineer Eugene O’Shea said Shannon isn’t worse than any other county. “While it is impossible to inspect all possible locations where rodents …