*Fursa Kavanagh.
PROVIDING a rail link to Shannon Airport has been flagged as a key issue for Fursa Cavanagh (GP) in his bid to get elected to Clare County Council.
Fursa will be running in the Shannon Municipal District, the twenty six year old from Caherdavin is still living in Limerick but said he has aspirations of moving to Shannon. For the past “few months” he has been working as a security officer at Shannon Airport. He worked in Centra, Dunnes Stores, DLG and in photography before his latest role.
A past pupil of Christ King in Caherdavin, Fursa also attended Ard Scoil Rís before spending two years in LCFE and a further four years at TUS.
Although his family are “all Limerick based”, his mother Teresa Kilmartin hails from Newmarket-on-Fergus. He was involved with the scouts from the age of five which he credits which giving “a strong love of the countryside, hiking and nature”.
He has been a member of the Green Party for the last year and a half. “I find their primary goal is stopping the earth from dying, that is something I can get behind,” he said of his decision to join the Greens.
“I like Shannon, an opportunity presented itself and I decided to go forward for the candidacy. I think it is a good idea and I decided to run”.
Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) was the first to gauge his interest in running, he recalled after initially having doubt on who made contact.
Joining the election race a month out from the June 7th polling day is a challenge for a candidate without a strong presence in the area but Fursa is undaunted. “It’s either join late or don’t join, I’d rather turn up late than don’t”.
While he said canvassing was “going well,” Cavanagh admitted “I can’t remember” when asked what areas of the Shannon MD he had canvassed. “One issue brought up was the argument of the rail link and the collector road, I’m considering both,” he said.
His role in Shannon Airport has enlightened him, “there’s a lot of arguments, being a part of Shannon Airport, I’m aware of the arguments on getting more flights in and out of Shannon Airport, getting more companies and jobs in Shannon and making Shannon have its own identity”.
Securing more bus routes and cheaper bus fares to Shannon, Limerick and Galway were also flagged as priorities by Cavanagh. He said he would not have “any complaints” about the performances of sitting councillors in the Shannon MD, “Shannon is getting stronger in a lot of ways. I’d like to get certain things done like the rail route into Shannon Airport and getting more inter-connectivity”.
