Meeting Sir John: Retiring Longford Chief Executive, Paddy Mahon, reflects on memorable visit

Of the many moments reflected upon with pride by retiring Chief Executive, Paddy Mahon, few compare to welcoming former British Prime Minister Sir John Major to Longford.

READ: Interview: Longford Chief Executive retires from public service life

The visit, organised in honour of the late Albert Reynolds, brought one of the architects of the Peace Process to the county for an evening that celebrated his friend and political ally who had passed away in August 2014.

In recalling that time, Paddy laughs, “His visit took place on the Monday after Mullinalaghta won the Leinster Club Championship so it was a really nice time in Longford!"

Describing how the meeting came about, Paddy explains, “Basically, to honour the memory of Albert Reynolds, the council worked very closely with the Reynolds family in inviting Sir John Major, the former British Prime Minister, to come and speak at what we called the Albert Reynolds Memorial Lecture.”

“We invited Sir John, as we called him, in 2016, but the earliest he could come over was 2018. So we arranged it for December 2018. He came to Longford and spoke at the lecture which was held in the Backstage Theatre and MC’d by RTÉ’s Sinead Hussey.”

READ: Longford County Council's 'commitment' and 'vision' praised by outgoing CEO Paddy Mahon

“We had a full house on the night; a lot of the Reynolds family and many of Albert’s former colleagues were here as was a huge crowd from Longford as well, like the elected members and county councillors. Minister Heather Humphries had been asked by the government to attend, and Micheál Martin who was leader of Fianna Fáil was also there.”

Sir John’s speech, Paddy said, was a memorably touching tribute to a man he clearly regarded as a dear friend.

​He recalled, “Sir John spoke very, very well about the friendship he’d had with Albert and the strong links they formed during the Peace Process that they were involved in back in the 90’s and the whole story and understanding around the Downing Street Declaration. Following his speech, there was a panel discussion about the legacy that Albert had.”

Remarkably, despite Sir Major being in demand as a speaker and commanding top level fees for doing so, his fee for Longford County Council was notably different.

READ: Longford County Council CEO a 'great leader' who overcame 'significant challenges'

Paddy laughs as he recalls the council ‘very diplomatically’ making inquiries with team of the former Prime Minister would like.

"It was great to think that Longford County Council, a small county in the middle of Ireland could reach out and help organise such a major event. At the time, we were always wondering, would Sir John be charging a fee for this so we had to ask very diplomatically if there was anything he needed?”

“The message that came back was that he would make his own arrangements to be there and that if possible could he have a small room where he could meet the Reynold's family on his own for a while, and if he could also have a cup of tea and some sweet cake. There was no other ask.”

“That was a nice surprise as well as to have the former Prime Minister of the UK to come here and talk about his relationship with the Irish Taoiseach from Longford. It was nice to know that there are some people out there that will do things out of respect for people rather than for monetary gain. It was obvious he was very close to Albert and it was out of respect to him and his family that he did it.”

“The fact that the former British Prime Minister visited at no charge - he didn't charge Longford County Council one single penny - and spoke in memory of somebody who was obviously a close friend of his, as well as a political collaborator, it was just incredible.”

“The evening itself was lovely and I suppose for me, out of all the things I look back on, that's definitely one of the big highlights.”

Funded by the local democracy reporting scheme