This article is from page 12 of the 2009-03-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
FIANNA Fail has announced the selection of a third candidate for the Ennis West electoral area.
Tom McNamara (56) from Kil- maley has joined Councillor Peter Considine and Garrett Greene in the line-up for the county council elec- tion.
Tom is a first time candidate who is a retired assistant director of nursing
with Clare Mental Health Services. He has been extremely active in the community in Kilmaley, helping to form the Kilmaley Development As- sociation ‘Meitheal’ in 1995, a body which he chaired for 12 years.
Tom believed it was necessary to form the association to provide a voice for the people of Kilmaley as they had no local representation on Clare County Council at the time. The purpose of Meitheal was to pro-
vide an outlet for the people of the parish to take control of their lives and make improvements for the local community. Over the years Meitheal and Tom have been very successful in achieving this goal, building 12 houses for the elderly of the parish along with a day centre that acco- modates 25 people a day, four days a week. They have also set up a FAS scheme which has helped to tidy the area, mending walls and footpaths,
as well as organising CPR training for 35 people and installing two defi- brillators in the parish.
Tom has also co-ordinated the in- stallation of a radio communication to help broadcast Mass to the elderly of the parish. He also chairs the field development committee for Kilma- ley GAA which is looking to secure two hurling fields for the centre of Kilmaley and has successfully raised €200,000 for this purpose to date.