PLAQUE TO HONOUR MEMORY OF LARRY
16 TIMES MAYOR OF DROGHEDA, LARRY WALSH WAS THE ORIGINAL ‘SOLDIER OF DESTINY’
DROGHEDA Corporation is to erect a plaque in the memory of former Drogheda Mayor and Fianna Fail TD Larry Walsh - ‘one of the most popular and best known public representatives in the county.’
Colr. Matt Nolan said it was only fitting that the memory of the late Mr. Walsh be belatedly commemorated.
According to Colr. Nolan, Mr. Walsh became active in/Fianna Fail following the first meeting of the party in Patrick Hanratty’s at Watery Hill in 1926.
Mr. Walsh headed the poll in his first local election in 1926 and was elected Mayor in his first year on the Corporation - a position he held for the following eight terms.
Never before in the history of the Mayoralty had anyone held the position of Mayor for eight consecutive terms but Mr. Walsh did and he repeated the feat for another year span from 1948 to 1957, becoming the only man ever to serve sixteen years as Mayor.
At the General election in 1937 Mr. Walsh won a seat for Fianna Fail, giving the Party two out of three seats in the constituency. During his career he stood for national election seven times, being successful on four occasions.
When Mr. Walsh decided not to go forward as a candidate in the 1957 General Election, Padraig Faulkner took over the job to represent Fianna Fail in the South Louth area. After the General Election he was appointed to the Senate as one of the Taoiseach’s nominees.
Colr. Nolan said that during his political career of three decades Mr. Walsh, with the help of Frank Aiken, secured many industries for Drogheda such as the Oil and Cake Mills and Irish Cement Ltd.
Mr. Walsh showed great initiative in town development and slum clearance, acquiring on behalf of the Corporation most of the land on which many of the town’s major housing estates now stand.
Barely one month before he died the first tenants moved into Ballsgrove Estate, an area which in 1958 Mr. Walsh told the Drogheda Independent, he envisaged ‘will be filled with houses, shops, schools and a Church.’
He also served many terms on Drogheda VEC, Louth County Council and Drogheda Harbour Board. Mr. Walsh died peacefully at the Cottage Hospital on August 11, 1962.
The remains were removed to St. Mary’s Church, James Street and the cortege was led by Eamon De Valera.
Said Colr. Nolan: ‘ The Chief had come to mourn the original Soldier of Destiny.’