‘No one was more patriotic in service to county and country’
TRIBUTES FLOW FOR ALL JIMMY DEENIHAN ACHIEVED IN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL POLITICAL CAREERS IN HISTORY OF STATE
HIS former constituents simply ignored the fact Jimmy Deenihan had lost his seat at the last election, continuing to ring him at all hours of the day for his help.
That he still did as much as he could for them spoke volumes of the political character of the former Kerry defender.
“But that was the reason I had to declare my retirement from politics this week really as I just can’t do the work without the administrative support a Dáil seat would have afforded.”
He calls time on one of the most successful political careers - in political terms at least - in the history of the State having successfully fought seven consecutive elections since 1987.
Since then he has served as Minister for the Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht from 2011 to 2014, as Minister of State for the Diaspora from 2014 to 2016 and had also served as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture after Fine Gael came to power in 1994.
His first election was in 1982 when he lost out on a seat by just 144 votes. He made up for it five years later when he bucked a national backlash against Fine Gael to take a seat in a constituency that had only ever returned three seats for the party since it was founded.
Jobs were always the big issue. “It just seems harder to create jobs in North Kerry as it is so marginal geographically, with no national primary route through it. Even in a town as vibrant as Tralee it is difficult.”
Hard work was a characteristic he was renowned for, plugging away in office and even while in the Siberia of opposition to successfully set up community projects like the Seanchaí and Lartigue in Listowel to name but two.
He may have fallen victim to his own success, as close friend and supporter Billy Keane believes the electorate simply started taking Jimmy’s seat for granted.
“I don’t think the people will really realise just what a loss Jimmy will be to Kerry until he is gone, because he worked round the clock to improve conditions for people here. I think what happened was that people took it for granted that he was going to just get in again.
“From a personal point of view he deserves a great retirement, because no man was more patriotic in his service to the people of a county and country,” Billy said.
That was certainly true of the former teacher’s work on behalf of schools, playing a key role in developments at schools from Dromclough to Blennerville NS and Mercy Mounthawk.
He also helped deliver the Tralee Bypass, oversaw and drove, as Minister, the reopening of Killarney House and Gardens, and helped facilitate the filming of Star Wars on the Skelligs and in west Kerry.
He certainly won’t be idle, launching the Kerry Sports Strategy on Monday in his new capacity as Kerry Sports Partnership Chairperson.