MAC IS BACK FOR SLIGO
BRIDGING A 30 YEAR GAP MARC MACSHARRY TAKES A DÁIL SEAT
The MacSharry name is back in Dail Eireann after a gap of almost thirty years. Marc MacSharry romped to victory in Sligo/ Leitrim emulating his father Ray who was a TD for the party from 1969 to 1988.
Marc’s election also means Sligo town has a Fianna Fáil TD once more with Dr Jimmy Devins being the last to hold that distinction between 2002 and 2011. It was a proud and sometimes emotional day at the count centre in the Clarion Hotel on Sunday for former Tanaiste and Minister for Finance, Ray see his son capture the seat.
And a good day for the party turned into a great one with the late and dramatic election of Ballymote based councillor Eamon Scanlon who scraped home ahead of Fine Gael’s Gerry Reynolds.
Cllr Scanlon tasted defeat in 2011 but has now returned to the national stage. With the party going from no seats in 2011 to two now, party leader Micheál Martin will certainly be happy with the party’s showing and he will come under pressure to appoint MacSharry to a ministerial position provided obviously the party forms part of the next Government. The big shock from Sligo/ Leitrim was the defeat of Fine Gael’s John Perry after 19 years in the Dáil and who had taken the party to the High Court in order to get on the ticket. Tony McLoughlin comfortably held his seat for the party while there was to be no comeback on the national stage for former TD Reynolds.
Sinn Féin held its one seat through Ballinamore councillor Martin Kenny while there was a good showing from party colleague Chris MacManus and Independent Declan Bree also polled well being the highest vote catcher of the independents.
IT was a bad day at the office for the outgoing Government parties and in Sligo/ Leitrim Fine Gael suffered too with the loss of a seat but for a long time at the cont in the Clarion Hotel it looked as though it would hold its two seats.
It was Deputy John Perry whom the public took its anger out on and while Deputy Tony McLoughlin saw his vote drop too it never looked like the popular Rathonoragh , Strandhill Road TD was ever in any danger.
Tony ( 67) was re- elected to the Dáil without reaching the quota towards the end of the two day marathon count.
His first preference vote of 6,172 ( 9.9%) was a solid showing and with him being one of the most transfer friendly candidates in the field he was always adding solidly to his tally on each count, amassing some 10,931 by late on Sunday night.
Deputy McLoughlin’s showing in 2011 was a first preference vote of 7,715 ( 17.4%) and was always going to see a drop in this given the unpopularity of the outgoing government.
Deputy McLoughlin is some 43 years in public life, serving on the Borough and County Councils until his election to the Dáil for the first time in 2011.
He had a beaming smile throughout the count and this may well prove to be his last election no matter how long the 32nd Dáil will run. Deputy McLoughlin’s longevity in public life in Sligo is matched only by Councillor Declan Bree’s.
The Fine Gael Deputy acknowledges it was a tough campaign in poor weather but that it was the same for everyone and that a team of 150 people working on his campaign all played a part in his success.
A bigger area with no party designation for each candidate also made it tougher this time around making it a free for all and the necessity to ensure a presence in each of the four counties that embraced the vast new constituency.
One issue that came up on the doorsteps he said was the question of recovery outside of Dublin.
This was in complete contrast to the party’s election slogan of ‘ keeping the recovery going.’
“The recovery may have been on the east coast and certainly in areas around Dublin and I saw it myself but down here people are still suffering and I think certainly we got it wrong in terms of recovery and people have reminded me.
“The recovery isn’t there and I’ve been there on the ground over the past five years working extremely hard with a good strong team around me doing our utmost to help change things,” he said.
Deputy McLoughlin had no immediate thoughts on the formation of a new Government.
“I suppose today isn’t the day for that but I’ve been listening to radio and watching television over the past two days and it will be over the next week that this issue will be coming to the fore for sure.”
There’s a feeling in the party that perhaps it’s time to let others take the reins of power but Deputy McLoughlin is non committal on the issue.
“Whether other people have solutions that we don’t have I don’t know.
“Over the last five years there has been some very difficult years.
“When we went into Government in 2011 the country was in a very bad state and there’s still a lot of issues still to be resolved which will take a long while,” he said.