Crum happy with move from FF to Independent Ireland

Prior to the election, candidate Brian Crum made the decision to leave Fianna Fáil and to run with the new party, Independent Ireland – and, he vows, he is with the party for the long haul, confident that it is going to provide a new voice for rural Ireland.

“Independent Ireland approached me to see if I would run with them in the Kinnegad area,” said Brian at the count centre in Moate on Sunday. The reason I opted for Independent Ireland is that Michael Fitzmaurice approached me and Michael, a sitting TD, is also ‘a bogman’: he cuts turf.

He’s a plant hire man. I do a lot of work in rural places, agricultural contracting, ground works – working in the farming core of Ireland is what I do, and someone had to try and represent them. There’s things going wrong and they need a voice to shout out for them.”

Brian takes the view that there is a need for “wraparound services”, catering both for immigrants, and for the communities where they are placed. “The government should be coming out six to eight months beforehand with consultation for each area immigrants are going into, and… have proper services in place for both the residents of the area and the immigrants,” he says.

In the past, Brian served on Westmeath County Council for FF; however, boundary change ahead of the last local election affected him badly: running in the Moate LEA meant he was unable to vote for himself and if he ran in Kinnegad area, he would lose access to a large swathe of neighbours and friends who would, if they had the opportunity, have voted for him.

The same issue presented itself for this present election: “I am right on the dividing line between both LEAs,” he said.

“It was a hard decision, but good friends came in and spoke to me and we had a long chat about it and I ended up deciding to run in the Kinnegad area for Independent Ireland.”

Brian Crum was eliminated on the ninth count on Monday afternoon.