*Jimi Coughlan on stage with Bruce Springsteen.
KILRUSH BARBER, Jimi Coughlan has confirmed he will be not entering the local election race in West Clare.
Speculation had been mounting that he was set to throw his name into the ring as an Independent candidate but Jimi confirmed to The Clare Echo that he had considered such a bid but decided against it.
Jimi told The Clare Echo, “I thought about it ten years ago and again five years ago but I never felt it was the right time but this time I thought about it, the time might have been right but I just enjoy my life too much”.
It means there will be no clash of barbers on the canvass with Joseph Woulfe (II) currently employed at D’Barber Shop in Ennis. However with owner of Coco Lemon salon in Kilrush, Dawn Bennett (SF) also in the field, it means there will be a battle of the barber versus the hairdresser on the ballot for constituents in the Kilrush LEA.
Noted as a Bruce Springsteen superfan, Jimi has been to see him in Belfast and Kilkenny and will be at his concert in Cork. He quipped, “Springsteen shows are better than politics”. He even appeared on screen during the gig at Nowlan Park this week while ’The Boss’ was performing.
He explained, “If I was ever going to be a councillor I wouldn’t dream of doing it unless I could give it 100 percent. People say they go on agendas and say they could do this, that or the other but I love my job and doing what I do, being a barber in Kilrush is a job that I love and I don’t think I would have that love if I was a county councillor”.
According to Jimi, political parties in the past have approached him to run for the Council elections five years ago and this time round he was contemplating going as an Independent. “I just thought life is too short for all of that,” he said of entering politics.
In 2009, he opened Jimi’s Barbershop in Kilrush. Last year, he was named Barber of the Year at the Irish Hair and Beauty Awards for the second year running.
