New Louth Councillor John Reilly: ‘High miles, but still doing the job’

He was only sworn in, so to speak, on Monday morning at the monthly meeting of Louth County Council, but Fine Gael’s newest councillor John Reilly is no stranger to local politics.

The Kilcurry man has been part of the Fine Gael party for the best part of 30 years and has been involved in countless election campaigns for councillors and TDs alike. He knows the landscape and has been busy behind the scenes for years.

After John McGahon’s selection as a Senator, a Fine Gael seat became vacant on the council. For John, he says it took a look in the mirror one morning to finally make up his mind on throwing his name into the hat.

“I weighed up the pros and cons and I said I’ve nothing to lose,” explains the 54-year-old. “I looked at myself in the mirror one day and I was tossing a coin whether I’d go or not and I was shaving myself and I said ‘listen John, you’ll look in the mirror in years to come and you’ll regret that you didn’t do it. I didn’t want to wake up in 20 years time and say ‘I wonder if I would’ve won that convention?’”

Politics, he admits, has been a passion for him for a long time.

“Behind the scenes, I would be getting regular representations out here. I would get the bones of the representation and I would pass it on to a TD or councillor, whoever I thought would be most appropriate to deal with it, depending on what sort of problem it was.”

He has previous when it comes to running for councillor. Back in 2004 he was part of a group of four candidates put forward by Fine Gael for that year’s local elections.

“There were four Fine Gael candidates at the time and the pack was very squashed and ill-planned. So it didn’t go very well,” he says.

Sixteen years on and he’ll be taking his place as councillor from Monday. What will he be bringing to the table?

“Dundalk Carlingford must be one of the most beautiful parts of the county. We have Carlingford, Omeath, the Cooley Mountains. I can look across at St Brigid’s Shrine, the Hill of Faughart, Roche Castle, and I think going forward I’d like to promote tourism, because I think internal tourism would create more employment and we could be in an era now were jet travel - due to global warming and pandemics - won't be as popular now for the next decade. I think north Louth can benefit from tourism.”

The effects of the current pandemic are also being keenly felt, he adds.

“We have to try and get people back to work after the outbreak and I’d like to serve and make representations to help the people in my area to the best of my abilities.”

Married to Majella with two grown sons, the tanker driver and part time farmer is a busy man. But making the jump into the realm of being a public representative, seems right for him now.

“My kids are bigger now and my family’s grown-up and I thought it was a good time.

The other thing is a lot of the other political parties are going for younger people, but I found in life sometimes people are looking for somebody more mature - that’s only my personal opinion.”

Another advantage he feels, related to the current Covid-19 restrictions.

“We had a postal ballot, which I think was a great advantage to me, because there was no door-to-door canvassing allowed, they gave strict instructions that it was all telephone or email. So we had two or three weeks to canvas and I think the postal vote definitely suited me.”

John admits that party members may also have looked favourably at his loyalty and dedicated service when it came to selecting at the convention. It was between himself, Roisin Duffy and Craig Colgan.

“I was probably the longest one in Fine Gael and I’d be well-known with the membership. I think I had that going for me.”

Going from the background to centre stage brings with it added attention - both good and bad.

“I’d like to give my honest opinion on things,” John counters, “and just try to be as fair as I can and obviously we’re living in a different era now were politicians are getting an awful lot of scrutiny, but I think if we go to just trying to do your best and making the best representations for people that you can. Other than that you can’t really do any more than that.”

A self-proclaimed history buff, John believes he’s the first councillor or politician ever from Kilcurry.

“As far as I know Kilcurry has never had a councillor. I know we had Michael O’Donnell in Faughart. I could be corrected on that. The Coburns had ancestry in Kilcurry, that would have been the Coburns in the 50s. There has never been a politician from Kilcurry from any political party.”

That sense of knowing your history comes up when he speaks of two men who had a major influence on his political path.

“About 20-odd years ago I was involved in different road improvement schemes here and that’s how I got in with politics first and the man who introduced me to Fine Gael, he’s passed away now, he lives over in Roche, is Stephen Lynch. Also, Terry Brenan, I’d like to pay tribute to them. I’m actually writing a speech for Monday. I’m very conscious that this technically is Terry Brennan’s old seat and I helped Terry out in many elections and he’s recently passed away.They were two people who encouraged me into politics.”

But enough about history for now. John’s also looking to the future. On Monday he was joined by another newly co-opted councillor - 23-year-old Andrea McKevitt of Fianna Fail. It’s a combination of youth versus experience for sure.

John smiles and says: “If you were buying me you were buying a company car - high miles, but still doing the job.”