Carlow Council pay warm tributes to long serving councillor following retirement

All current members of the Carlow County Council provided warm tributes to Councillor John Murphy as he decides to retire and not run in the upcoming local elections.

John was a Councillor for three different regions of Carlow over the last 15 years. He was elected for Borris, Bagenalstown, and Tullow.

The Councillors took time before the May Council meeting to say their kind words for Cllr John Murphy:

Cllr Brian O’Donoghue: "They say can you can tell a lot about a man by his garden, John's garden is extremely neat, there are no weeds, it has excellent care all year round."

Cllr William Paton: "When he speaks we all stay quiet." "I have only once in 15 years seen him angry and that was righteous anger." "He is passionate about Carlow and Carlow tourism, I wish him a healthy retirement."

A theme of the tributes were paid to John's sharp dress sense as Councillor Wallace described as "exemplary" and urged him to "get out golfing" in his retirement.

Cllr Cassin described John as "One of the nicest men I've met in my life" and that "He was never hot under the collar."

A number of other tributes were also paid and then John had a few words of his own: 

He started by saying: "I want to thank every voter over the years." and that he is "a very proud Carlow man."

"It was a pleasure over the years meeting the backbone of Carlow, the community members, and volunteers." "It was a great honor being the Cathaoirleach in 2016."

When talking about his style of politics over his 15 years, "Remember Frank Sinatra's 'I did it my way', I always tried to do it my way."

About his decision to retire, "I am now the oldest member and its time to make way. I have the height of respect for everyone here and I want to wish everyone the best of luck. I won't rust away in retirement!"