Niamh steps into big shoes as Gearóid steps out from working life

AFTER a lifetime’s work with Kerry County Council Gearóid Mac Gearailt is enjoying the feeling of freedom this week following his retirement from the position of Dingle Area Staff Officer. His post is being taken up by Niamh Noonan from Lios Póil who went into work at the local council offices in Baile na Buaile on Monday, conscious that she has big shoes to fill.

Gearóid’s working life started in 1978 when he joined the post office in Mullingar on the day of his 18th birthday. It was a good, ‘safe’ job but within a few months another job, nearer home and with better pay, came up with Kerry County Council. He applied, got appointed, and started work in the council’s computer department in Tralee. It was the early years of computerisation and for a time it was interesting, but then control of the system was centralised and instead of Kerry controlling the computers, “the computers started telling us what to do”. Gearóid soon got fed up of that arrangement and after four or five years in Tralee he was happy to grasp the opportunity to head west to take up the job of Council Clerical Officer when the long-serving Jim Sheehy from Dykegate Lane retired.

Gearóid started work with the council in Dingle on December 31, 1981, and he stuck to his home turf thereafter, even though that meant passing up opportunities for promotion that would have required him to work in Tralee.

After working for over 42 years with the council, and with his 60th birthday behind him, Gearóid was eligible to retire and took the option of doing so because “there’s more to life than work”.

“We’re after losing a lot of experience with Gearóid’s retirement,” Corca Dhuibhne / Castleisland Municipal District Chairman Cllr Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald said this week. “He had a fierce knowledge of the area, you could ask him about anything and he would tell you straight up what the council could and couldn’t do.”

The one time Gearóid’s knowledge of everything that was going on left him down was on Friday when he was tricked into a surprise farewell party held in a shed (to allow for social distancing) in the council’s yard in Baile na Buaile. “I walked straight into it and knew nothing about it,” said Gearóid who was presented with a painting of Cill Mhaolchéadair as a memento.

Aside from playing golf and spending more time with his grand-daughter, Gearóid has no plans for how he will spend the years ahead; but as he enjoyed a stroll on Muiríoch strand on Monday morning a friend advised him to ‘do nothing for two years’ and, for a man savouring his new-found freedom, that seemed like an attractive enough idea for now.

Meanwhile, Niamh Noonan was settling into the job of Staff Officer on Monday, aware that taking over from a man who knew every nook and cranny of West Kerry left her with big shoes to fill.

Niamh worked for the past 10 years in the council’s revenue department which will equip her well for her new role which includes managing the budget for the council’s West Kerry operations, liaising with local council staff and the recently appointed Dingle Area Enginneer Tara O’Carroll – as well as dealing with the queries, complaints, requests and suggestions that land on the staff officer’s desk.

Gearóid Mac Gearailt