This article is from page 15 of the 2009-05-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
THERE was a time when the Pope, JFK and De Valera graced the walls of Irish homes.
For Fianna Fail supporter Ethna Cleary her wall will soon be adorned with photos of more modern day politicians.
The native of Darragh has already a photo of herself and former Tainiste and current Minister for Health Mary Harney on the wall of her home close to the Kilmaley Daycare Centre.
This will soon include a picture with Taoiseach Brian Cowen who dropped into say hello during his visit to Kilmaley.
Ms Cleary, who had spent 40 years living in Dublin before returning to the assisted living houses in Kil- maley four years ago, was delighted with her visitor.
“T think I will put the picture of Brian Cowen above Mary Harney,” she said pointing to the wall.
“Although she was lovely too.”
Brian Cowen got a rousing wel- come to Kilmaley and the Daycare centre, which he admitted made a nice change to his week.
With the clients singing as he ap- proached, the Offaly man was in good spirits.
“When the contest 1s over after June 5 and we are all out trying to get our votes, when it is all over and you have made your decision, the job
for us all will be to work together and come behind whatever priority you have identified and make sure we make further progress in the months and years ahead,” he said.
‘And it is that spirit, that type of ap- proach and that positivity that may I say 1S a great antidote to what I have to listen to a lot of the time within the belt way. In the beltway, which is within the two mile radius of Dail Eireann, where everyone starts talking to each other and talking to themselves, and media people and they are all around and everyone is saying everything is very bad and we will never get out of this and we will all be in terrible trouble.”
‘I think really we need to see a bit of balance into the argument, and the balance in the argument is when you come down to communities like this that are getting on with their lives, getting on with building up their communities, getting on of course with contributing and quite rightly with critiquing us and having a go if necessary but doing it in the right spirit because at the end of the day even though I am an Offaly man we are on the same team.”
The Taoiseach also received a posi- tive reception in Shannon, at St Ca- main’s School.
The Leaving Cert Applied class, who were studying IT and spread sheets, were gracious enough not to offer any words of advice when it
came to accounting and the econo- my, despite the Taoiseach broaching the subject.
In Leaving Cert physics the topic quickly turned to hurling, as council
candidate and minor selector Eamon Fennessy spotted young hurler Kevin Lynch in the front seat.
All in all, press conferences aside, Brian Cowen’s visit to Clare was
sportingly positive.