*Cyril Crowe. Photograph: Joe Buckley
FINE GAEL’s plans to gain a third seat in East Clare for the 2024 local elections have been dealt a major setback following the decision of Cyril Crowe to withdraw.
Quin based Crowe made the decision in recent weeks to pull out of the election race. Family and work commitments have been cited by the Sixmilebridge native for prompting his withdrawal.
Cyril who has lived in Quin for the past eleven years with his wife Mags and three children first expressed an interest in August for securing the party’s nomination for the ballot in the Killaloe Municipal District.
At Cnoc na Gaoithe in September, Cyril was selected alongside Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) and Cllr Pat Burke (FG) as the party’s candidates in the Killaloe MD following Ger O’Halloran’s (FG) announcement at the eleventh hour that he would not be allowing his name forward.
Crowe who had been “right-hand man” for election campaigns of his uncle Cllr John Crowe (FG) has taken the wind from Fine Gael’s sails and has certainly lifted the spirits of Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) as Crowe was expect to be a strong challenger for his voting pool in Kilmurry and surrounding areas.
Party officials in Fine Gael are now working to line up a potential replacement candidate for Crowe. They may be forced to go cap in hand to O’Halloran, the parliamentary assistant to Clare TD, Joe Carey (FG).
O’Halloran launched strong criticism of the party at the September selection convention. He said Fine Gael were “ill-prepared” for Sonny Scanlan’s (FG) retirement ahead of the 2014 local elections and that there was no agreed strategy in advance of the 2019 local elections.
Speaking in Tulla, O’Halloran commented, “Given the current constituency chairperson’s statement that Fine Gael is expecting to retain but grow numbers, the absence of any strategy is bemusing”. He quoted Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.
O’Halloran added, “I won’t be repeating the process without the same discussions, if Fine Gael want Ger O’Halloran as candidate, Fine Gael kow where to find me, I will be available to have those discussions”. Following this statement, he left the building at the back entrance of the Tulla venue.
Items that had been at the top of the agenda for Cyril, a former Clare minor and U21 hurler were housing and rural crime. “There is a huge amount of people who can’t get on the housing ladder, there are couples with two good wages who can’t get on the threshold for mortgages, there really needs to be a huge look at affordability, the rental sector and the cost of living which is impacting on people all over Clare,” he previously remarked.
“Rural crime is a huge thing because Garda resources just aren’t there, there should be community groups for rural crime. A lot of the crimes are happening when Gardaí and the Armed Support Unit are off duty, a lot of crimes that have happened to us in the shop have been during 4 to 6am when the Armed Support Unit are off, East Clare has been riddled with crime with roving crime gangs”.
