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You are > Home > Hard work pays off for Mayor Pat Leahy
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
Hard work pays off for Mayor Pat Leahy
BY DONAL HICKEY
KERRY’S new mayor, Pat Leahy, of the Labour party, is a low-key operator whom you won’t hear shouting from the rooftops.
But he will have a vital role to play in winning back a Dáil seat for his party in Kerry North.
A councillor for the Listowel area since 1991, he must be hard-working as his vote, which has been on a steadily rising graph, proves.
When first elected 19 years ago, he polled a modest 1,090 first preferences, increased that to 1,312, in the 1999 elections, pushed it to 1,448, in 2004, and brought in a very creditable 1,889 votes, last year.
Leahy, who works as a delivery truck driver for Jack Carroll’s, in Listowel, has an occupation that ought to suit a man in politics. For, it brings him into direct, daily contact with the people and there must not be a yard, house, or individual in the area that he does not know at this stage.
But, he still has to do his political work – otherwise, the people would not continue to return him to Kerry County Council.
Significantly, former Labour party leader Dick Spring made one of his rare appearances these days by turning up for Cllr Leahy’s mayoral election, on Friday.
His presence in the council chamber was a tribute to the new mayor’s dedication to the party over a long numbers of years.
Dick Spring will also be director of elections for his nephew, Arthur John, in the next Dáil election and Pat Leahy will be expected to deliver a big vote from the northern end of the constituency.
Sinn Fein, with a strong local county councillor in Robert Beasley and town councillors in Listowel, has established a foothold in the highly competitive Listowel/ Ballybunion area where there promises to be a mighty battle between Labour and the Shinners.
Nationally and locally, everything seems to be going in Labour’s favour, at present, and it was certainly strange to see Pat Leahy not being opposed when elected mayor.
Fianna Fail, which held such a tight grip on the chair for so many years, accepted the reality and did not bother proposing a candidate of its own.
There was no point in doing so when Fine Gael and Labour combined have 14 seats, a majority.
As has been the practice on the council down the years, winner takes all and Killarney Labour councillor Marie Moloney was elected deputy mayor.
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