‘Father of Council’ looks back on 40 years in Limerick politics
LAST MONTH, Limerick’s longest-serving councillor, Kevin Sheahan, announced he would bring the curtain down on his long political career.
The Askeaton man was first elected to council in 1985, and he’s served as cathaoirleach of the old county council twice, and was the first mayor of the new joint local authority.
Now at 77, his seniority has left him with the moniker of ‘The Father of the Council’.
On the occasion of his latest election in May 2019, the Fianna Fail man declared he had at least three more campaigns left in him.
But the following year, the world changed. Reality struck - he believes he was impacted by Covid-19 - and Cllr Sheahan made a decision.
“I came to the conclusion, talking to myself, that I’d love to remain a councillor, but would I be able for what I consider will be a hard-fought campaign? he said of the impending local election in the six-seater Adare-Rathkeale constituency.
He’s tried to persuade one of his three sons – Kevin Jr, Robert and Rory – to perhaps run for his seat come May 2024, but right now, he says they “wouldn’t touch it.”
“I always felt it would be that way, but I did give them the option. I would not like to see any of them go just because I went.
"It’s the worst reason for anyone to be in politics. I see too much of that, where people were carrying the family flag and are not happy,” Cllr Sheahan says.
Over the years, the father-of-three has perhaps been on the fringes of the Fianna Fail setup in the county.
Outspoken and fiercely independent, he has not always voted in line with the party whip, putting him at odds with senior figures locally. Indeed, he says one of his mottos is “People First.”
Despite this, he has seen many things, and performed many special ceremonies – not least conferring the Freedom of Limerick on President Michael D Higgins in 2014.
This was when he held the historic position of the first ever mayor of Limerick’s new joint authority which set up that same year.
But his pathway to that role came with a degree of controversy.
After being decimated at the 2011 general election, the Soldiers of Destiny staged a mini-recovery three years on, returning 13 councillors and becoming the largest council party.
Due to the size of the new authority – 40 members – a hung council was inevitable, and plans were set in train for a coalition between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to rule.
An historic deal at the time, but a sign of things to come.
It was a case of ‘to the victors, the spoils’, with the plum jobs on the new council – like the mayoralty, paid chairmanships of committees and district leaders – being divided between the Civil War rivals.
However, the new Fianna Fail grouping was instantly destabilised with Cllr Sheahan joining fellow councillors Kieran O’Hanlon, Eddie Ryan and the late Joe Crowley in walking out of a meeting and forming their own bloc, calling themselves ‘Independent Fianna Fail’.
They felt at the time they were being marginalised, and sought fair play.
The four men – who dubbed themselves the Maldron Four, after the southside hotel they retreated to, knew that they were crucial if a successful coalition was to be built at the time - nine years ago now.
Cllr Sheahan explained: “We had them over a barrel. We went public in the media.
“We had them at a vital moment – the allocations of positions had gone haywire – it’s a numbers game.”
It led to the intervention of the party’s general secretary Sean Dorgan to bring them back around the table, with their one wish being a level playing pitch.
It was newly-elected councillor Shane Clifford who devised a system whereby constituencies, then names would ultimately be drawn from a hat.
The first role to be decided upon was the mayor – and it was decided this role would go to a rural councillor. So the three rural constituencies went into a hat – Adare-Rathkeale, Newcastle West, and Cappamore-Kilmallock.
The first area out would get the mayoralty, with the drawing of Adare-Rathkeale making it a toss-up between Cllr Sheahan and his running-mate Richard O’Donoghue, now an Independent TD.
After Mr O’Donoghue said he didn’t want to take on the role, it cleared the way for Cllr Sheahan who became first citizen.
With Fine Gael having two mayors, and Fianna Fail having three as part of the deal, there were two names still left to come out of the hat for future mayor roles: Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon was first citizen in 2016/17, while Cllr James Collins had the top job in 2018/19.
The reason for the initial walkout was related to the voting of councillors James and Michael Collins into local leadership positions.
So it was not lost on many observers at the time that under the new deal, only one Collins secured a Fianna Fail mayoralty.
With negotiations over the role going to the wire, Cllr Sheahan was only able to tell his wife that he had secured the top job just after midnight on the day he was to have the chain around his neck.
“I went home and Caroline was there, watching the box. She asked if we picked a mayor. I said ‘we did – you’re looking at him!’. Her first question was what she would wear,” Cllr Sheahan recalled.
He sent her into the city to buy a new outfit that Friday morning – ironically their wedding anniversary – ahead of the mayoral election, where he knew he had the numbers to secure the role.
Asked what he feels his toughest day in politics was, he said: “I never considered days being difficult to be honest with you. I can tell you one of my best days was the day I had succeeded in bringing President Mary McAleese to open the swimming pool in Askeaton.
“It was something her office didn’t entirely agree with. But I knew somebody who knew somebody, and she agreed – she would come to Limerick, and fit Askeaton in.”
Councillor Sheahan admits that there is no way he expected to still be in politics 38 years and seven elections later.
“I didn’t think I’d even be alive at this stage of my life,” he admits.
Prior to 1985, he led a full life, with a long career in the gardai, including a spell in its Special Forces.
Representative politics never crossed his mind – “I never saw myself slotting in”, as he put it.
But encouraged by a councillor who was stepping down, Thomas Barrett, he ran in the old Rathkeale district, where Fianna Fail won four of the five seats available on the first count.
“Fianna Fail had three seats out of the five before that election. I took the fourth seat, and two Fine Gael people were fighting it out for the last seat.
“It has never been done before in the history of the Republic that any party took the first four seats. It was unheard of,” said Cllr Sheahan.
Politics is very different to 1985. Then, Fianna Fail was in its pomp. Now Sinn Fein lead in the polls and are on course to form the next government.
“I think Sinn Fein are playing a very clever game. They have learnt from the old Fianna Fail. They are on the ground working with the people and it’s worked.”
Asked if Sinn Fein has ‘stolen Fianna Fail’s clothes’ somewhat, Cllr Sheahan was emphatic: “No: we have lost them and they’ve found them. It’s not they are cleverer than us – we got careless, we got lazy, and we are paying the price for it.”
As he approaches the winter of his political career, the former mayor insists he still has a lot to get done before he leaves council.
He has pledged that Askeaton Leisure Centre will re-open “bigger and better than ever”, despite fears to the contrary.
And in his retirement, he will continue to push for a new sewerage system for the town, a problem which has long existed in West Limerick community.