Curtain falls on colourful political career

The thrill of being accepted back into the Fianna Fail party after a 14 year exile was short lived for Cllr Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahy as he passed away this week following a cancer diagnosis.

His passing was greeted with shock and regret by both his colleagues in Fianna Fail and his fellow members of Galway County Council where he had served for 40 years.

The 68-year-old Ardrahan farmer lost a rather brief battle with liver cancer on Tuesday evening having undergone surgery in the Galway Clinic a couple of weeks earlier. His passing has left a huge void in Galway politics.

Often described as “a larger than life character”, The Stroke famously served a term in prison over the alleged misappropriation of funds in the construction of a wall at his lands under a Community Involvement Scheme back in 2004.

The ‘Father of the Council’ was sentenced to a year in prison which many of his Fianna Fail colleagues at the time thought was severe but, having left the party and served his time in Castlerea Prison, Michael Fahy had the conviction quashed in 2011 following a lengthy appeal.

While the criminal investigation was ongoing, he was forced to resign from the Fianna Fail party but it was a proud moment for him when he was readmitted late last year after 14 years in relative political exile.

Following his readmission to the party, The Stroke received a round of applause when he arrived for the January meeting of Galway County Council as he took his place amongst his Fianna Fail colleagues in the chamber.

He was regularly said to have had three main passions in life: his late mother Mai, who died in 2008 at the age of 99, the Fianna Fail party and the Catholic Church.

See full story and tributes in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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