This article is from page 57 of the 2013-07-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 57 JPG
NEW Mayor of Ennis councillor Mary Coote Ryan has defended her decision to vote against a Fine Gael party colleague at last week’s annual general meeting of Ennis Town Council.
Cllr Coote Ryan voted for independent councillor Frankie Neylon for the position of Deputy Mayor ahead of Cllr Mary Howard (FG).
Cllr Howard had earlier withdrawn her nomination for Mayor, clearing the way for Cllr Coote Ryan to take up the post. Cllr Coote Ryan was nominated for Mayor by Cllr Neylon and the long-serving councillor said it would’ve been “bad form” not to back his nomination for Deputy Mayor.
“I’m very fond of Mary. I think she is a lovely person. It was very big of her to withdraw but Mary’s time will come. I won’t be going anymore. I do hope that Mary does very, very well in the next election and anything I can do to help with that, I will do it”.
Cllr Coote Ryan added that her decision not to vote for Clr Howard “won’t do anything to our friendship”. Cllr Coote Ryan has sat on Ennis Town Council since 1990 when she was co-opted onto the seat following the death of her brother Paddy. Speaking on Tuesday night, she admitted she is “very proud and honoured” to have been chosen as Mayor. She continued, “It is a very important year, the last year of the town council as we know it. We can’t sit back on our laurels. As far as I’m concerned this is a year we should be planning ahead. I know that economically things aren’t great but they won’t always be like that and I think we should be planning ahead for the future and get our little speak in before the council dissolves. Hopefully whatever decisions we make now will be carried on by the council”. Recalling her early days as a councillor, Cllr Coote Ryan said, “At that time I was really plucked from the kitchen sink. I hadn’t a clue. I knew Paddy went to meetings and that was the extent of what I knew about the council. But the minute I entered that door, I took to it like a duck to water. But they were all so good to me. At that time, and I hate to bring politics into things because I think it’s unfair, there were four maybe five Fianna Fáíl councillors and they looked after me so well that I never would have made it but for them. They were all terribly good to me. Tomás Ryan was wonderful and his knowledge of local government was a real help.”
Cllr Coote Ryan said she would like to see further enhancement of facilities at the Lees Road sports and Amenity Park during her time as Mayor.
She explained, “I think there is a need for a café. You have some big sports days up there and I think it would be lovely if parents and children could go an get a drink. I think there is a need for something like that. Maybe in time too we could have some indoor facilities. We could be planning that now.”