Labour Party: Healy-Rae comments are a personal insult
Killarney writer Máire O’Leary put lock-down to good use by completing and publishing her first novel, ‘ Freewheelingto love’. She talks to Sinead Kelleher about becoming an author.
‘A PERSONAL INSULT’ was the strong description by local Labour Party member Ben Slimm of Michael and Danny Healy-Rae’s attack on the Labour Party following their Dáil spat with Dublin Fingal TD Duncan Smith.
In last week’s edition of The Kerryman, the Healy-Raes took aim at the Labour Party, branding it ‘a disgrace’ when last in Government, with Michael Healy-Rae TD praising ‘ the good people’ in Labour in the past.
But this has infuriated Ben Slimm and members of the party in Kerry, who call it an insult to the younger and more progressive wing within the party here.
“It’s kind of a personal insult. The Healy-Raes don’t know me, they don’t know Luke Crowley-Holland, they don’t know the younger membership that is very active within the county,” he said.
“I grew up in a council estate in
Tralee with a single mother who was disabled, I was her carer; I grew up in a working-class environment,” said
Mr Slimm.
“I think Duncan Smith really captured it when he said he didn’t have to put on a caricature of being working-class…the Healy-Raes have been very successful, and fair play to them. But they are the landlord class. They own properties and rent them out to people like me who are working class. That’s the be-all and end-all of it,” he said.
Ben – who ran as an unsuccessful candidate in the 2019 local election for Labour – blasted the Healy-Raes for calling Labour ‘ hypocrites’ while at the same time arguing against the party’s ‘sick pay’ bill.
He went on to lambaste the HealyRaes for their tactics during the last General Election.
“There was a lot of hurt caused for Labour by the Healy-Rae brothers in Kerry when Michael posted on his social media page a picture of Michael and Danny standing next to a grave with ‘ the Labour Party in Kerry’ on
the headstone,” he said.
“It caused a lot of hurt as there still is a large network of Labour Party followers in Kerry. I would even go as far as to say that this same network lent their vote to the Healy-Raes when we didn’t have a candidate in the last election.
“Michael said in last week’s article that if Duncan Smith wants to go to the gutter, Michael Healy-Rae won’t be following him, that to me was the gutter. He went to the gutter first.
“I think this all goes back to when Joan Burton asked Michael Healy-Rae to step-down from the Citizens Advice Board, he wouldn’t do it because it was
in his own interest to be on it.
“That is why he is so dead-set against Labour...Because we asked him to do something he should have done as part of the TDs’ code of ethics.
Mr Slimm feels that the Healy-Raes appeal to people largely because they tell them ‘what they want to hear’ but don’t have to make decisions that impact on people. He admits that Labour got things wrong in Government and the people showed what they thought of it. Lesson learned?
“Looking forward, Alan Kelly is shaping the party since he became leader. The party on the ground is growing again,” Ben said.
MANY of us have said we would love to write a book, but few of us ever have the time to dedicate to the project. The past year, however, has given everyone more time than ever before, and Killarney mother and writer Máire O’Leary decided to put this time to good use by completing her first novel.
Earlier this month, her dream came through when her novel finally hit bookshops around the county.
“I haven’t had time to absorb it yet. There was no launch because of COVID, so it was surreal, but the day it hit me that I had published a novel was when I carried it into Easons in Killarney,” said Máire.
It has been a steep learning curve for the Killarney woman as she learned about the book trade.
Having self-published the novel, she is now concentrating on marketing – the much more difficult aspect – but she is undeterred having alread fulfilled her life-long dream.
“I always wanted to write. At home, we had no TV when I was young, and my mother would take us to the library every two weeks and we would get two books,” she said.
This fostered a love of reading in Máire that endures to this day, and she counts Kristian Hannah and Nora Roberts among her favourite authors. It is no wonder then her own book follows this fictional genre. It is also based in Killarney and built around cycling, something which Hannah loves deeply. The biggest cycling event in the country, The Ring of Kerry, features strongly in the book.
“It is romantic fiction with cycling in the background. Killarney is the backdrop, and there is romance on top. Saoirse and Oisín are best buddies, but then Saoirse meets a romantic other and Oisín gets jealous as he realises he is in love with Saoirse.”
However, there is much more to the story than just a love story, with a focus on sexual and mental health fertility issues, and consent layered underneath the main story. The serious themes in the book come from Máire’s job. She is a Health Promotion
Officer with the HSEHSE, so she ha has brought her knowledge of real-life issues to the book.
“It is not a classic romance but a modern story,” she said.
Máire actually began writing the book back in the 2013 when she was pregnant with her first son, Odhrán, and the book was officially launched on his seventh birthday this year.
“As a teenager, I always said I would love to write, and then life got in the way. But when I was on maternity, life slowed down and I had time to think,” she said.
Máire is originally from Bantry and moved to Kerry to study at IT Tralee. She is now married to Ger and they live in Headford with their two children.
When Máire starting writing, she was a committed cyclist and still is. She has completed the Ring of Kerry and this event inspired her to start writing. Having moved from Bantry to Kerry, she soon learned how important the Ring of Kerry is to people locally, and she credits the event as the backbone of her book.
“If it wasn’t for the Ring of Kerry, I would never have written it. I got ideas while I was out cycling,” she said.
However, once Odhrán came along, the book was put on the back-burner, and life once again got in the way. The book remained to one side.
Then, in 2017, Rían came along, and the book came into view again while Máire was on maternity leave. This time around, more of the novel was completed, but it was not finished.
Then lock-down hit, and Máire decided to make her book her lock-down project and finally finish it.
Having given the book to her sister and mother to read, and having received positive feedback, she decided to dedicate any free time she had to finishing the novel during the first lock-down and, by September she had done exactly that. Then began the difficult job of publishing the book, but with lots of help along the way, it was published just this month. JM Editing, with editor Jeremy Murphy, put the finishing touches to the book and helped Máire tidy up the plot-lines and sharpen the characters.
“I just googled copy editors and his name came up, and he was really good. I couldn’t see the wood from the trees at that point,” she said.
Orla Kelly Publishing is the publisher of the book, and Lisa Daly from Milltown, a close friend of Máire’s, took the photos for the book on a day out at the Gap of Dunloe – so the product not only portrays Killarney and Kerry in the written word but also through photography.
Máire is over the moon that the book is now finished. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult, everything had a positive side, and for Máire this is that she finally had time to complete her novel and become a published author.
“Something good came out of COVID. The book gave me something to channel myself into during lock-down and carried me through from March until now,” she said.
And Máire’s advice is that anyone can do it:
“Everyone has a story, just put some time aside, even just small chunks of time, you can get a lot done in an hour. It can be difficult but it can be done.
“We underestimate our abilities but once you get started, you tap into your subconscious and let yourself go. When I started writing the first chapter I was trying to script it, but just let go.”
Máire said she was overwhelmed by all the support she received from other authors, and though she knew nothing about the publishing industry, many helped her along the way, including fellow Killarney author Paddy Osborne .
“It is a learning curve, especially the promotion side,” she said.
Máire is hoping to continue to put pen to paper and write a second novel, but her aim for the moment is for ‘Freewheeling to Love’ to make it to the US market and to more bookshops. Currently ‘Freewheeling to Love’ is stocked online in Amazon and Book Depository and in Eason’s in Killarney and other local book shops. Ten per cent of the books profits will be donated to two Kerry charities: Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre and South West Counselling.
SOMETHING GOOD CAME OUT OF LOCK-DOWN. THE BOOK GAVE ME SOMETHING TO CHANNEL MYSELF INTO