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Sad Scenes in last Clare County Council Meeting

There were mixed emotions and moving scenes at the last meeting of the outgoing Clare County Council last evening.

Tributes, sympathies and goodbyes were the order of the day as four of the current line-up retired from the job, and five others faced a break or an end to politics having lost their seats in the weekend’s local elections.

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It was business as usual at Clare County Council at first though very weary councillors and journalists struggled to keep attention following a gruelling weekend of highs and lows.

Sympathies were offered to retiring Councillor Martin Lafferty on the death of his daughter, Patricia McCarthy on the passing of her father and also outgoing Kilrush Town Councillor Deirdre Culligan’s on the death of her mother.

The recent bereavements provided an alarming perspective to those councillors grieving the loss of their council seats, Fianna Fails – Tom Prendeville from Kilrush attended part of the meeting, his colleagues Bernard Hanrahan from Clarecastle and Tony O’Brien from Killaloe stayed on to make parting speeches as did Peter Considine from Ennis, though Fine Gael’s John Mashen McInerney had already set off into the sun, on a previously planned trip to Alicante!

All of the losing councillors were applauded in turn, as they thanked colleagues and though Bernard Hanrahan spoke of the harsh reality of facing life without a job, he said he expected to be back in five years time.

Tributes were also paid to retiring councillors Martin Lafferty from Lisdoonvarna, Colm Wiley from Bodyke and Flan Garvey from Inagh who had some words of criticism from the media on the way council expenses are portrayed, describing council salaries as a pittance given the task –

The Mayor of Madeline Taylor Quinn was also applauded for her contribution to local and national political life and as a great ambassador for Clare, though she insisted she hasn’t retired from politics yet – and Peter Considine said he was pleased to have his health again, despite losing his seat, and even quipped that maybe he was better off out of the blood spilling to come given the new line-up of the County Council

The new Clare County Council elected at the weekend, comes into effect from this Friday

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