'End of an era' as Cllr Mairead Tobin attends final district meeting
Monday saw the final Dungarvan Lismore District meeting being held ahead of the local elections and the occasion marked the end of an era, being the final meeting at which a member of the Tobin family would sit in council, for now at least.
Well wishes were extended to Cllr Mairead Tobin, who will not be contesting the upcoming election in June as she intends to focus on her family in the coming years.
Around October of 2022, Cllr Mairead Tobin stepped into her father’s seat at Waterford City and County Council after he passed away suddenly in July.
First elected to Waterford council in 1999, James Tobin was a proud Knockanore local and Fianna Fáil man. Mr Tobin was active in the community, taking up roles in Shamrocks Hurling and Football Club, the community council, the rural transport committee, St Carthage’s House in Lismore and many more.
Now after some 25 years of service from the family, Cllr Mairead Tobin is preparing to take a step back from local council, however, it is understood that she may return in the future.
Leading the well-wishes at Monday’s meeting of the Dungarvan Lismore District, Cllr Damien Geoghegan acknowledged that the meeting was Cllr Tobin’s final one.
“She came in here under difficult circumstances obviously when her late father James passed away, a great friend to all of us. He started out here in 1999, a quarter of a century ago and I want to wish Mairead the very best. You will be a loss to the county Mairead. You really hit the ground running. You’ll be missed. You continued a great tradition that your father started here 25 years ago,” Cllr Geoghegan said.
Fellow Fianna Fáil councillor, Tom Cronin, thanked Cllr Tobin on behalf of the party for all the work she has done for the Lismore Electoral Area.
“I will miss her the same as I miss her dad. I would also like to wish her the very best of luck going forward. It is the end of an era in one sense. Those things happen and you move on. It’s the people of the Lismore Electoral Area that are going to lose out here,” Cllr Cronin said.
Cllr John Pratt, who has served the Lismore Electoral Area alongside both Cllr Mairead Tobin and her late father, James Tobin, also wished her well going forward.
“She has been an exemplary councillor and for me to have been working with her. Maybe I’m getting a bit sentimental, but it has been a pleasure and I mean that genuinely. I really want to wish her the best. In the short time she has been here, what she has done - she will be back,” Cllr Pratt said.