*Mary Crawford.
FIANNA FÁIL’s new Chairperson in Clare has said she aims to “empower” members in the wake of their anger with the Presidential Election.
Mary Crawford of Inagh was elected as the first female Chairperson of the Fianna Fáil Clare Chomairle Dáilcheantair on Friday evening, having been Vice Chairperson during Darragh McAllister’s sixteen month stint in the top seat.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Mary outlined why she put her hand up for the Chair. “I’ve been involved in every level of the party over many years, a situation presented itself nicely over the last while, I was the outgoing Vice Chair and I thought maybe at this point I’d put my hat in the ring. I’ve a good wide berth of the experience for many years”.
On what she can do on a local level to try restore the hurt felt among party members amid the ongoing unease in Fianna Fáil, Mary stated, “We are where we are with things that have happened, because I feel I really want people to be empowered that is where I’m going to come from so whether there is upset which there could be, it will be everybody empowered in so far as we possibly can and to try overcome those issues which presented themselves and those can happen in different ways at different times.
“There can be disaffection with people, events and leaders with questions asked, a time comes when you have to move on and listen to the people on the ground, engage the people and to try build up, we have to do that and we have had an absence of that in the past, there is a lot of work to be done with terms of engagement”.
Engagement with members will increase, she stated, “I see it as a role where there will be a lot of engagement with the membership and collaboration. I’d like to think we will engage as many members as we can by setting up sub-committees, looking at revitalising the party in different comhairle ceanntairs which is one of the first things we have to do. I have sat on several sub-committees in the past, I see they are of huge benefit and it brings more people into the party at ground level, it gives you a real sense of partnership and that is what I’m about, I want to see an engagement all around, make the party relevant to the people and above all to have younger people involved. Our new PRO is a young man, we will have another young person coming in from Ógra as our youth officer, I can see there is great scope”.
Former principal of St Joseph’s Secondary School in Spanish Point, Mary admitted she was “surprised” that she was the branch’s first female Chairperson. She noted they have a strong female representation on the officer board where she is joined by Louise Roche McNamara, Angela Coll and Geraldine Lambert. “I wasn’t aware of that, we’re delighted, we have also the secretary is female, the equality officer is female and the membership officer is female so we have a good balance with four female officers”.
Councillors have expressed a desire for the party to hold more meetings amongst members and Mary has said this will be examined. “We haven’t had a chance to discuss the number of meetings but we just had a short-officer board meeting to touch abse and to say hello. I did say in my acceptance speech that part of my vision was to try and engage people, the first step was to have an officer board meeting tonight as brief and all as it would be. We have managed to agree a date for an officer board which should set in motion plans for other things like dates for regular meetings and hopefully other types of events we will engage in through the coming year”.
