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Ladies Day for County Council as women take both mayoral positions
Galway Bay fm newsroom – Tuam Area Councillor Mary Hoade has been elected as the new Mayor of County Galway
The Fianna Fail Councillor was given the Cathaoirleach chain at the annual general meeting of the council which is being held in Bailey Allen Hall at NUIG this afternoon.
The refurbishment of the chamber on Prospect Hill to accommodate the extra 9 cllrs from 30 to 39 is not yet complete.
Cllr Hoade was nominated for the position of Mayor, now known as Cathaoirleach, by Fianna Fail Cllr Michael Connolly. Her nomination was seconded by newcomer Donagh Kilalea.
Independent newcomer Karey McHugh from Tuam was nominated by Sinn Fein Cllr Dermot Connolly and seconded by Independent Cllr Shaun Cunniffe but failed to secure enough votes.
The pact involved 12 Fine Gael members and 12 Fianna Fail members.
Newcomer for Fine Gael Niamh Byrne has been elected as Deputy Mayor. She was nominated by Cllr Jimmy McClearn and seconded by Cllr Tom McHugh.
Newcomer James Charity was also nominated by Cllr Jim Cuddy but failed to secure sufficient votes.
Meanwhile, Independent Cllr Donal Lyons is on track to become Mayor of the city later this evening.
He’ll be elected under a pact between the 4 Fine Gael, 2 Labour and 5 independents, 3 of whom are former PDs
The pact was formalised last weekend amid a lot of what cllrs have termed ‘bickering and too-ing and fro-ing.’
The first meeting of the new city council gets underway at 6 this evening in the refurbished chamber to accommodate the extra three councillors from 15 to 18.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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