“In politics, you make your place or you take your place. You don’t expect special treatment because of your gender or ability. You fight your corner.”

By Dermot Crean

“POLITICS is in his/her blood” is a trite description some observers bandy about when talking about various political candidates. But in the case of Norma Foley it couldn’t be more apt and true.

The councillor from Staughton’s Row has been making political speeches from her pre-teen years, on the canvass for her late father Denis. It’s difficult to imagine her doing anything else after I spoke to her at her home.

“I grew up in a very political household. My father was born over Fianna Fail headquarters in Tralee, so he was hugely involved in the party from a very young age.”

Denis would go on to represent the people of North Kerry in the Dail over a 20 year period from the early 1980s so political life was the norm for her.

“As a young child I was always with him so I attended his clinics and community meetings. I later acted as his secretary for many years so from a young age I became very familiar with the issues on the ground,” she said.

“I learnt what it was to be dogged in your representation and to pursue something to the end to get the best possible result for something. Sometimes it didn’t work out, but at least you could say you did your absolute best.”

Norma particularly remembers going on the canvass back in the late 70s, early 80s.

“It was a family involvement. We were never in the background and always out with my father. General elections were fought over a three week campaign and the family were divided into teams spread throughout the constituency. I can remember being 12 or 13 and giving a speech at one of the after-Mass meetings where  candidates or their representatives would address the public. I suppose it was a novelty to have a young girl speaking on the back of a lorry. I would travel with my uncle Joseph and the big thing was to get there first, because first in was first up to speak. So we were always racing to get to the next place.”

Norma also saw that, from an early age, it’s a tough business.

“I learned that you should never expect a break. Even though I was the youngest – and usually the only female there – I was never allowed go first if I wasn’t there first. I took my place. It was a great lesson to learn in life. You make your place or you take your place and you don’t expect special treatment because of your gender or ability. You fight your corner.”

Her experience in those days influenced her decision to follow in her father’s footsteps.

“Because I worked so closely with him [her father] I very much became aware of the need for involvement, not to stand on the sidelines. I think if we all stood there nothing would be achieved. We’re all called to do different things in life and mine is to be in the middle being proactive. I like to be a solution-finder so the work of a local representative appeals to me.’

She ran first for Tralee Town Council in 1994 and has been re-elected every time since then, holding the position of mayor on two occasions (“it was a tremendous honour having growing up in town and it was a role I never took lightly”).

She is out looking for votes again to be re-elected to Kerry County Council in a climate that is less antagonistic to Fianna Fail than five years ago. Norma says she could understand people’s frustrations at the time.

“People were angry and rightly so, but on a personal basis no-one was discourteous to me. People would say ‘it’s nothing personal Norma, but…’ I can totally understand that. Fianna Fail got a lot of things wrong, but equally so, if we were balanced, you could say they got a lot of things right in their time. Fianna Fail has learnt from its mistakes,” she said.

“But I think in terms of local politics, people look at the individual and what they’re about and what they bring to the local community. The broad-mindedness of the electorate is fortunate in that respect.”

I asked her why the people of the Tralee Electoral Area should vote for her this time around…(see video)

She is proud that many of the tourism projects in the town over the years came to fruition while she was a member of the soon-to-be defunct Town Council.

“The Town Council took leadership in terms of employment and developing projects in the town. At a time when it wasn’t popular to take on this sort of role, the Town Council led the way in initiatives like the AquaDome and the most current one, the Wetlands. The spin-off for the town from these projects has been massive,” she said.

“We’re being failed dismally nationally by the IDA, so my agenda would be self-help and self-promotion. We’ve done it before when the chips were down and we can do it again,” she insisted, citing the recently acquired Denny site as a great opportunity going forward.

The girl who was educated in Presentation Primary and Secondary School in Tralee before studying in UCC, came back to teach in her alma mater in 1999.

“My life has come full circle because I’m back there [Presentation Secondary] now. It’s a great place to teach. I’m very happy there, there’s great staff and I love working with young people.”

Norma is married to Denis Maguire, a Fermanagh man who, being avid sports fan, loves Kerry. A Man United fan (“tough times, we’re down but not out”) Norma is a great lover of the arts with a great interest in genealogy.

She made a proposal to Kerry County Council that Tralee make a application for the National Diaspora Centre (“we are brilliantly suited here in Kerry and Tralee to be home to the centre). The Council is in the process of making that application.

On the gender imbalance issue, Norma would welcome more female involvement in politics, but not for the sake of making up the numbers.

“It’s regrettable because women bring a distinctive flavour to politics. Women are talented and capable of being strong representatives of the people and I would be hugely supportive of more women getting involved. Having said that I would hate to think any woman was on a ticket as a token candidate.”

LOCAL election candidates have been sent a strong message from Tralee Chamber Alliance to commit to backing policies that support their local businesses.

A detailed manifesto containing a number of key measures that need to be addressed by the politicians who will be elected to Kerry County Council, could lead to the creation of many new jobs in the construction, retail and tourism sectors say the Alliance.

The Chief Executive of Tralee Chamber Alliance, Kieran Ruttledge, said: “All of the policies in this manifesto are designed to achieve two key aims: Reduce the cost of doing business and create new jobs. Commercial rates provide the single greatest source of funding to Local Government, therefore the business community must be a key contributor to policy. This will ensure that every area can contribute to and benefit from Ireland’s economic recovery. Tralee Chamber Alliance is the voice of business in Tralee. We are uniquely positioned to understand the challenges the business community faces, but also the opportunities it creates.”

He added that he would have preferred to see the retention of Tralee Town Council who have actively supported the efforts of Tralee Chamber Alliance and he urged the elected representatives to make sure that there are benefits for business when implementing the local government reform measures.

He said it is crucial that the money raised by the Local Property Tax (LPT) should be retained by Local Authorities to be spent on local services and any discretionary reduction should not be to the detriment of business interests or job creation through a corresponding increase in business rates.

Tralee was selected as one of the Top 10 Tourism Towns in Ireland in 2013 and with a view to maintaining that ranking, the manifesto states that  Kerry County Council will need to work with Tralee Chamber Alliance to deliver and support initiatives that attract tourists and tourism spend to their local areas.

The pre-election manifesto deals with a wide range of issues relating to town centre parking charges, the provision enterprise mentoring from local authorities, concerns ahead of the introduction of water charges and effective infrastructural planning matters.

“These elections come at an important time as they are the first opportunity for the public to influence the newly reformed system of Local Government,” said Kieran Ruttledge.

Full details of the Tralee Chamber Alliance Local Election Manifesto are available from www.Tralee.ie and from the Tralee Chamber Alliance Office, 18 Denny Street, Tralee.

“Politics is a personal journey, you either believe in something or you don’t. You’re in a party but you make certain personal decisions. If I lost that approach I would leave politics without hesitation.”

By Dermot Crean

LOOK around Tralee and chances are you’ll see a bit of Jim Finucane in a lot of things. He’s out in the Windmill in Blennerville and at the Museum in Ashe Street.

That absence of a stench on the Dingle road for the past 25 years? He was pivotal in removing that too.

So for a man who has contributed so much to the town, what keeps him coming back for more as he runs again as a Fine Gael candidate in the local elections.

I met him at his house on the Oakpark Road and found out more about the north Kerry man.

Born, reared and educated in Tarbert, the Finucane family were dealt a blow when the father died when Jim was just 13. He got offered the position to train as a draughtsman in Dublin upon leaving Tarbert Comprehensive back in 1975 and would spend the next nine years in Dublin, a move which would shape his social and political leanings.

Dublin, as it is for any young man from the country, was a completely new experience for Jim. He got involved with the Catholic Youth Council who ran a centre in Sheriff Street among other places.

“At the time, Sheriff Street was the old Dublin tenements and known as a very tough part of Dublin. I helped run a disco two or three nights a week just to keep kids in off the street.”

He saw some things there that had a profound effect on him.

“I saw my first eviction there, guys with helmets going in,” he recalled. “Being from Tarbert I wouldn’t have been aware of social ranks or differences but in Sheriff Street unemployment was rife and there were nutrition issues with children. Basically kids had to grow up quickly. It was a no-no of an area in terms of giving it as your address when going for a job. That situation made me get involved in politics.”

He wrote a “hard” letter to Garrett Fitzgerald at the time and the Fine Gael leader asked him to get involved in Young Fine Gael which was starting around that time (late 70s).

He got elected to the Executive and was later National Chairman for two years He also was director of elections in Dublin North Central  (“I found city politics demanding but I liked it.”)

He describes himself as “very much left of centre” in the party; “Social justice has been my principle then, right through to now.”

He came back to Kerry in the mid 1980s when he got a position as an inspector with an insurance company in Tralee. He ran for Tralee Town Council in 1986 and was elected and would spend the next 14 years in the local authority, the only Fine Gael councillor.

“It was in the aftermath of the closure of the Tubes factory which devastated the town. Some would say it’s challenging enough now but it was similar back then.”

Jim got involved in projects which would make Tralee the tourist town it is today. He praised the recently deceased former town clerk, Sean Crispie (“an extraordinary man and a great town servant”) for his work around that time, as well as John Griffin.

“The Blennerville Windmill, Steam Train and County Museum projects stimulated economic activity and gave confidence to the local economy. Before that there was very little, apart from Siamsa Tire, to keep tourists in Tralee,” he said.

He also started the process of closing the dump on the Dingle road, of which we can all be thankful for!

“I began the process of telling the County Council that we’d [the Town Council] close it and they could make their own arrangements. I was Chairman when we put the locks on the gate of the dump.”

He was also instrumental in instigating the sewage treatment plant out in Lohercannon (“it dramatically altered the quality of the water in Tralee Bay.”)

Jim took a break from politics for much of the Noughties but returned in 2009 when he was asked to run in for the County Council and he was elected.

This time around Jim says there is a lot of fatigue amongst the voters on the doorstep.

“People are paying all their commitments and its a struggle. It’s gone on for six years now and there’s a tiredness there. I can understand it, it’s hard for people to take,” he said. “I think the people that should be spared from this hardship are the young and the old. As the economy begins to turn we need to redress this,” he stressed.

For the future of Tralee, it’s all about jobs and improving infrastructure as he explains here (see video, apologies for audio quality)

He feels strongly that Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte needs to step up in the Shannon LNG issue where there is huge scope for jobs all over North Kerry and Tralee.

“The situation is unacceptable at the moment and I’m not giving up on this,” he said.

Other pressing issues facing the town, he says are getting technological university status for Tralee will “be of huge benefit to the town in terms of attracting companies to the campus”, the maintenance of the airport and the road infrastructure to Cork and Limerick.

Away from politics and public service, Jim has a great interest in history, especially related to those who emigrated to the US back in the mid-nineteenth century (he attended the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia in 2012).

Married to Sheila Sheehy, sister of Kerry legend Mikey, he, naturally, is an honorary Rockie and travels to Kerry games. He is also very proud of his three children, James, Jill and Orla.

After all these years in public life Jim hasn’t lost his enthusiasm and conviction.

“I believe I have a contribution to make. Nothing is more tedious than public life if you’re not interested in doing something different. I’m not in it for longevity. Unfortunately there’s too many people in public life in it for that.”

“If I don’t get elected because of my involvement with the international community, LGBT and the Traveller movement, then that’s fine with me. I’d rather have done five years decent work in supporting minority groups than being elected year after year and turning my back on them.”

Dermot Crean meets Labour candidate in the upcoming local elections, Gillian Wharton Slattery.

IF there’s one thing you can say about Gillian Wharton Slattery, it’s that she’s all about equality.

We sit down for a coffee in at the Tralee Wetlands, a brief respite from pounding the pathways of estates all over town on the canvass.

Born into a large family from Ballyseedy, Gillian says she had a great childhood, especially at school in Caherleaheen where her mother attended and later, Gillian’s two sons were educated there.

Now domiciled in Ballyard, her interest in social and political issues began with Amnesty International back in the 1980s, but with two small children to mind (Damien and Colin) she was deterred  from seeking any political office.

In the meantime she worked with Slattery’s Travel, Kingdom Travel and later South-West Walks, before being employed at Miriam McGillycuddy’s legal business.

“That’s where my interest in politics gathered legs because Miriam was a Labour councillor at the time,” she recalled.  “I would have been a Labour supporter, having canvassed for various supporters over the years. I saw how Miriam was able to get things done as a councillor.”

In 2008 she was asked by Dick Spring to run as a town councillor.

“I am impulsive by nature but it did take a little time to think about that one. I fiercely competitive by nature and I’m a sore loser. So if I say ‘oh it’s  alright’ if I lose that’s not the truth. So I was was thinking ‘what if I don’t win? I’ll be mortified!’. But I took up the task and I did  manage to win the seat in 2009.”

Of course the mood on the doorstep at the last local elections is different now.

“The tide was with us definitely at the time. We were riding on the crest of a wave,” she continued. “I was a new candidate so I couldn’t be blamed for anything  I suppose. This time around there is concerns and debates at the doorstep, which I welcome, because there is no point in handing in the leaflet and walking away. We have to engage with people,” she said.

“But people know I’m a hard worker and I’m getting great goodwill in general. I find in some cases that people are more sad than angry at what’s happened in terms of emigration and the economy. I agree that it is sad, but we’re trying to pull ourselves out of it now.”

Gillian is a huge advocate of getting women in involved in politics.

“It is difficult for women, especially for those with small children. There are four women running in the Tralee Electoral Area and I feel it’s important that there is strong female voices and enough female voices at the table,” she said.

In terms of the issues facing the town, Gillian feels strongly about the housing issue as she explains here…

The issue of mental health is close to her heart having worked with local organisations down the years.

“In Kerry General Hospital I think there should be a division between young and old patients in the psychiatric ward. There should also be more emphasis on mental health awareness in schools.”

Her stance on asylum seekers is something she admits might make her unpopular with some people.

“People give out to me about the asylum seekers but somebody has to speak up for them. I have a huge issue with people being in direct provision. It’s ridiculous that people are in limbo for years in these centres at huge expense to the State. Many children are born into this situation so they are Irish children,” she said.

“I don’t mind people being sent back if they don’t deserve to be here, but don’t keep them in limbo-land because that’s just cruelty.”

She’s also very much involved in women’s rights issues and the International Resource Centre as well as a host of other community groups such as Tidy Towns, Coast Clean Up and the Marine Litter Forum.

“I’m conscious of our conservation duties. We have an opportunity to change that through our work in these organisations,” she said.

She is also involved with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community.

“I helped set up the first Kerry Pride festival and it’s taking place again this year. There’s huge issues around that community too, from a mental health perspective as well,” she said.

Away from politics and activism she has a great love for the arts and is a former member of the Zyber Theatre Group. She also loves walking, hiking and photography as well as writing.

Dermot Crean meets the political veteran who has not lost his enthusiasm for Tralee after over 40 years of community service.

JOHNNIE Wall is a busy man.

The Ballinorig man, with over 40 years service to Fianna Fail, is running as an independent in May’s local elections and he still has a lot of ground to cover on the canvass.

Married to Tina, and father to Johnny, Mary B, Kathleen and Mikey, the genial former Kerry Blue is hard at work at his computer when I visit him at his home.

First of all I asked him how he got involved in politics all those years ago.

“I was in a band and we were good friends with Denis Foley of The Brandon at the time. He asked me to help out with canvassing for Fianna Fail. I was also very much involved here (Ballinorig) in the community games and so on as well. Then in 1985, Councillor Maureen Henry, with six weeks to go, decided not to run in the local elections and I was asked to run.

“It was my first time in the town council and I enjoyed it. I got a feeling for how the town was run and I’ve been re-elected for the past 30 years.”

But a new system came in for this election where there is no more town council and there will be nine seats in the Tralee Electoral Area. Johnnie was very disappointed not to be selected to run for the Fianna Fail party.

“They (Fianna Fail) decided to pick two candidates and maybe add one later. I was there 30 years and Ted Fitzgerald was there 40 years, so I thought they’ll surely let the two of us run. But I got a phone call one Sunday night from the party saying they weren’t going to run me, they were going to run Ted. So I got on my computer and emailed party HQ to tender my resignation.”

Is it different running this time without the party machine behind him?

“I feel it when I’m trying to do everything myself, with the posters and all that. The party weren’t that great for (financial) help. The TDs get big budgets for elections, not the councillors. But they do put up the posters. I had a supporters meeting in the Manor West three weeks ago and 60 people showed up to help which was great and they’ll help me if I need it.”

Johnnie is running this time because he feels he still has a lot to offer the town and he is concerned about the future with this new system of local government. He says the monies collected from rates, housing rents and parking charges will now be going into the county council coffers.

“I’m worried about the Wetlands, the Town Park and the museum…we funded all these things in the town council. Will that money be there now or will councillors from south or north Kerry want it for their areas? I’m worried that unless we have enough local people on the council, Tralee will lose out badly. That’s a big fear.”

So what can he offer in this new Kerry order?

“I’m not a man for making speeches. I’m a great believer that if something needs to be done I’ll go away and do it. We needed a summer festival there a few years ago so I started Feile na mBlath in June which has come on a lot. When the St Patrick’s Day parade was dying a death a few years back I  said ‘let’s try change this’ and now its a great community event.

“When the town had a reputation as being dirty and untidy we started the Towards A Better Tralee and the town has won two Gold Medals in the Tidy Towns in the last few years. When I was mayor of Tralee I sent letters to companies in America detailing what the town can offer. The IDA have done nothing for the town.”

Johnnie firmly believes we can’t rely on Government agencies to attract jobs.

“If I was elected, I’d be pushing the Council to set up a group that would travel and try to sell the town abroad. Mark out the companies to target and bring them a package to show them what the town offers. It’s worth it. The IDA will do nothing for us. They go to the Pale first, then the border, midlands and west and then down to Cork. We’re way down the line. It’s tough meeting people at the door whose children have had to emigrate. I can’t promise them jobs but if we can get a group together to go try to entice companies…”

So what are the big issues he’s meeting on the doorstep?

“Most people are giving out about the water charges and the household charge. On the outskirts of the town people are worried about the septic tank issue and they want to be connected up to the main sewer. Housing is another issue. There is no shortage of housing in Tralee, we’ve plenty empty houses.

What we can’t do, in old settled estates, is move in a couple of families where people will be, for instance, playing football in the street late at night, because it disrupts the whole system. There needs to be fresh thinking on it.”

Away from the canvassing how does he relax

“I go for a few drinks on the weekend and sing a few songs at a music session.”

An ardent John Mitchels man, Johnnie is also season ticket holder at Thomond Park and, thanks to his children, a Liverpool supporter. He also helped set up Mitchels Avenue FC in their ground in Hawley Park.

As I leave the Wall home he is on the move again, off to give a neighbour a hand with something, before going back on the road.