‘Slan abhaile agus beannacht libh go leir’

“Slan abhaile agus beannacht libh go leir!,” said Cllr Frank McDermott, Ireland’s longest serving councillor – 57 years in office, twice chairman of the council, and a successful candidate in 11 council elections – at his final meeting of Westmeath County Council last week.

Frank first walked through the doors of the council chambers on July 22, 1967. He gave an outline of the layout of the chambers at that time and who sat where, including the press box, occupied by young reporter, Dick Hogan.

During that first term, Frank served with Paddy Cooney, George Allen, Ned Farrell, PJ Lenihan, Tom D’Arcy, Sean Fallon, Ned Higgins, Paddy O’Shaughnessy, Tom Lenihan, Edward Fagan, Sean Flood (his teacher in national school), Joe Sheridan, Tim McAuliffe, JJ Clavin, Sean Keegan, Gerry L’Estrange, Jimmy O’Brien, JH Keegan, Aeline Mallin, Jimmy Bennett, Dick O’Neill, and Joe Feely. John H Keegan was elected chairman and Jimmy Bennett vice-chair at that meeting.

Frank has served with 13 TDs – Paddy Cooney, Gerry L’Estrange, Paddy Lenihan, Mary O’Rourke, Sean Keegan, Henry Abbott, Paul McGrath, Willie Penrose, Donie Cassidy, Sorcha Clarke, Robert Troy, Boxer Moran and Peter Burke – and senators Tim McAuliffe, Helena McAuliffe, Nicky McFadden, Gabrielle McFadden, Donie Cassidy, Sean Fallon, Paul Daly, Aidan Davitt, Camillus Glynn, “and if I left anybody out, it wasn’t by design”, he said.

“I was lucky in love and in life in that I met the beautiful young Anne Bartley, a great loyal Brownstown woman; we married in 1970 and had three fabulous kids and now four wonderful grandchildren,” Frank said.

Two of their children, Audrey and Danno, were in the public gallery. Sinéad is working in Dubai. Their grandchildren are Josh, Rashel, Lucy and Rosy.

Cllr McDermott described Paddy Hill as “a great friend, a loyal confidante”, and wished him “the height of health and happiness in his retirement”.

“Johnny is still only a gosson and, maybe as Paddy said, he’ll come again,” he remarked, wishing Cllr Shaw “the height of good luck”.

He thanked the executive for their input over the years. “I might not have agreed with it all, but you were always listened to and, maybe in the heel of the hunt, you might get your way, but you had to respect the views of others, maybe, as far as I was concerned, better educated, more aware of the worldly things,” Frank commented. He declared that he enjoyed serving the people to the best of his ability.

In wishing head of finance Jimmy Dalton well in his retirement, Cllr McDermott remarked: “Mathematics never was my thing, but Jimmy made sure I understood the message and always assisted me when I needed that help. That is important for officials, to be able to read the difficulties the public representative is in and the quandary they are trying to get out of,” he said. He also wished Barry Kehoe well in his new role as chief executive.

Cllr McDermott thanked in particular “the people in our one-stop-shop in Castlepollard – Mary, Olivia, the library team, Eddie outside, and the outdoor staff”.

“We have a remarkable team in north Westmeath, and I would defend them to the death, absolutely,” he declared, adding that it was a pleasure to work with them.

“To all my supporters over the years, thank you. To the local Fine Gael team in Coole Kinnegad, Emily (Wallace), Antonia (Izekor) and my brother Seamus, the height of good luck. There will be losers, I hope there won’t be many, but work towards it and get over it. Slan abhaile agus beannacht libh go leir.”

Colleagues pay tribute

It was “a sad day” when Frank McDermott, the longest serving councillor in the country, Paddy Hill and John Shaw attended their final meeting of Westmeath County Council on Monday of last week.

The cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam McDaniel, said: “When any of you spoke, we all listened because we knew what we were getting was sensible debate and guidance and you represented your areas very well.”

Cllr Ken Glynn said it was indeed a sad day for Fianna Fáil, who were losing two “experienced and excellent councillors” in John Shaw and Paddy Hill.

“Their record in their locality, the respect people have for them on the ground, the respect the people have for them in this council, is second to none,” he remarked. He said they, along with Frank McDermott, had given great service to the county and were “three great role models”.

Cllr Tom Farrell, on behalf of Fine Gael, said Frank had given more than 50 years of unbroken service to the council. “In my eyes, you are a role model to us of what a councillor should be,” he said, adding that he had learned a lot from Frank about how you should talk to officials and the public.

Cllr Farrell remarked that Paddy and Frank had served with his father, the late Ned Farrell, and he knew John Shaw through the GAA. Cllr Denis Leonard, Labour, wished the Paddy and Frank a long and fruitful retirement and hoped that many of the projects that they had started would come to fruition.

He said that although Killucan, Raharney and Kinnegad are rivals in sport, he had never worked with anyone who was as co-operative as John Shaw. He bemoaned the fact that the council were losing three rural councillors who knew about rural issues and were prepared to take off the party jersey to work for the good of the county.

Cllr Paul Hogan remarked that the three retiring members, between them, had more than 100 years of service to the county. “Your experience, contributions, knowledge of local government legislation, the approaches at budgetary times, it is a huge loss,” he said.

Frank has been a public representative for 57 years, cathaoirleach on two occasions, and has successfully contested 11 council elections “which has to be a record in itself” Cllr Hogan said. “You were fantastic ambassadors and role models, and the county owes you a debt of gratitude,” he said. The newly appointed chief executive, Barry Kehoe, on behalf of the executive and their predecessors, thanked the three members for their outstanding contributions over the years. “You were always formidable councillors, all three of you, and you always made your voice heard and it was always something worth hearing.

“You were always supportive of policies and initiatives that would benefit the people of the county.”