*Cllr Cillian Murphy and Deputy Cathal Crowe are among those to seek more meetings amongst Fianna Fáil members.
FIANNA FÁIL are not holding sufficient meetings with party members in West Clare.
A common theme emerging at selection conventions for Fianna Fáil is the appetite from members to be holding more frequent gatherings for them to air their views on how the party is performing and what can be done to grow its base locally.
At the Ennis selection convention in October, Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) led the call for regular Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair meetings to be held. “It seems to me that when we meet as the Fianna Fáil family we’re putting on the green armband and honouring our dead. We should be meeting more often, I would love to have a meeting of the Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair before Christmas to give our candidates a platform to bounce ideas around”.
This stance was echoed by Liam Daly, “We haven’t had a Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair meeting for many years, I would like to see more Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair meetings. It has to be said”.
In Kilrush on Sunday evening, fresh appeals for regular party meetings were voiced.
Michael Shannon who put his name forward for the convention to select Bill Chambers’ replacement on the County Council, suggested the party make renewed efforts to have more meetings locally.
While praising the performance of Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) since his election in 2019, Shannon noted that this was the first time since that success in May of four years ago that Fianna Fáil have held a meeting in West Clare.
“This is the first meeting of the Comhairle Ceanntair in my four years as a councillor and that is awful,” Cllr Murphy admitted. “I was finding my feet and it is a hard job to find your feet in but maybe it is something that we can work on on the future to make a strong Comhairle Ceanntair”.
