Moynihan machine wins in Macroom
THE MOYNIHAN machine rolled into County Hall for the Macroom count and did the task that they came to do.
Despite a marathon wait, the tallies boded well earlier on in the day for the first time runner, Gobnait Moynihan, a sister to the sitting poll topper TD, Aindrias,
The tallies had placed Gobnait who was co-opted to her brother’s council seat when elected to the Dail at the last general election at 2,574. Finally, when the first count was called at 10.59pm, a beaming Gobnait beat the tallies and got 2,665 first preference votes.
As the quota was 2,474, a clearly delighted Gobnait was duly elected and was swamped with shouts from the party faithful.
She told The Corkman that she was “delighted and absolutely thrilled” at the result.
“It has been a mighty day for Fianna Fail, it’s been absolutely mighty,” said Gobnait.
When asked how she found knocking on the doors to get a vote for herself this time as opposed for her brother, Aindrias, she said that she was well seasoned at campaigning and found it “great but a hard and long canvas.”
“I had a great team around me. I would have been absolutely lost without them. I started campaigning at the end of January so it has been going on for ages,” she said.
“I was concentrating around Macroom and I shared the area with Michael Looney,” she said.
Gobnait concentrated her campaign around the regions of Macroom, Kilmichael, Tooms, the Gaeltacht area, Millstreet and Ballydaly. “It really is a brilliant day and a brilliant win,” she said.
When asked if it helped that her brother, Aindrias as a sitting TD was a great help along with giving advice, Gobnait readily agreed. “There is a fierce family of us there and a fierce team of Fianna Failers down throughout the years and a great team there and this was a mission for the entire team,” she said.
And what issues kept propping up at the doorstep?
“Roads, broadband and social welfare came up as well and a sense of frustration that rural Ireland is kind of being forgotten,” she said.