Paddy mcguinness changed the face of politics in mayo
IN standing as an independent candidate in the 1994 West Mayo by-election, businessman Paddy McGuinness changed the face of politics within the county. Had he not put his name forward in a campaign to secure a regional technical college in Castlebar, Beverley Flynn would have been elected to take the seat held by her father Padraig, who had been appointed EU Commissioner, and the now Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring, would not have been elected.
Paddy, a native of Monaghan, sustained an 18-year campaign to have the now highly successful GMIT become a reality, writes Tom Gillespie. But it was not an easy passage and it was the failure of Padraig Flynn and Fianna Fáil to commit to the college that forced Paddy to put his name on the ballot paper.
The by-election was held on June 9, 1994. Michael Ring (Fine Gael) polled 10,390 first preference votes, Beverley Flynn (Fianna Fáil) 10,967, Paddy McGuinness (Ind.) 6,275, Johnny Mee (Labour) 1,103 and Dr. Jerry Cowley (Independent), who had withdrawn ahead of polling, 338. The electorate was 45,932 and the quota was 14,562, and Michael Ring was elected on the second count.
Paddy explained: “I took up the locating of an RTC in Castlebar at every possible opportunity, as president of the Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the town council. I kept it going when it looked to be dead. I suppose I became so bloody thick about it and obsessed with it that I would not give it up.
“That probably would never have happened if Padraig Flynn had made a bit of an effort. I would never have run in the by-election, Beverley would have been elected and Michael Ring would never have been elected. It is extraordinary what happened.
“I was chairman of the town council when the by-election came up in 1994. I was sitting beside Padraig Flynn, who was EU Commissioner then, at the annual dinner of Castlebar Mitchels in the Welcome Inn Hotel. I was on the executive of the Mitchels at the time and I had asked to be put beside Flynn. I found it hard to talk to him at times. They (Fianna Fáil) had made an announcement that they were going to spend €1 million in doing up a room or two in St. Mary’s for a couple of classes.
“I asked him (Flynn) if he could get Albert as Taoiseach to say this was part of a five-year or 10-year plan and that ye would spend so much a year on the project. He looked at me and said ‘You’ve got all you’re going to get’. I said, ‘Padraig, you are going to force me into running in the by-election’.”
Had there been a commitment to the RTC he would not have run in the by-election.
He added: “It would never have happened and I would never have run. It was a campaign where people came together in the interest of the common good. The force of good is an extraordinary force. It is impossible to stop it. It is wonderful to look back and see the college there. It would be better if it was the MIT but there are benefits of it being GMIT.”
Paddy McGuinness, who will be 70 in March, arrived in Castlebar at the age of 17 in 1962 to take up a job in the post office and over the years became involved in every aspect of the commercial and community life in the county town.
He elaborated: “Even at the post office I wanted to be at the head of everything. I was branch secretary of the union. There was a new union formed in the country and I became a founding members of the Post Office Officials Union.”
When he became involved in business in setting up Homemaker the first thing he did was set up a traders’ association. “I became a member of the Chamber of Commerce and became its president. I played a minor part in the pantomime in the Town Hall. I became the administrative officer for Anto and Richard Condon. They used to do shows every year. Then Richard Condon had the Anew McMaster Theatre where he put on five weeks of full time plays and the actors used to come up to me in the post office to get paid. I had the cheque book. I met one of them recently, Laurence Foster, who went to the top in drama in RTÉ.
“For three or four years I ran the John Player Tops of the Town and Fr. John O’Brien from Claremorris convinced me to run their drama festival and I ran that for a few years. I became deeply involved with the Castlebar International Song Contest. I was director for three years after John McHale and I was in the background when other directors were there. Of all the things I was involved in, and most proud of, is the Castlebar Community Development Association (CCDA). There was an enormous amount of work done there.
“The biggest thing was playing a minor role in saving Travenol (Baxter) in the late 1980s. I was chairman of Castlebar Urban District Council when Travenol decided to close and a journalist from The Connaught Telegraph rang me to make a statement on it. I said, ‘Give me time to think about it’ and I came back and said we were not calling on the government to set up a task force. We were going to see if we could convince Travenol to remain on. It was a huge movement and the church played a part in it. Fr. Martin O’Connor spoke from the altar about it.
“Travenol stayed and a lot of the credit for that goes to Kieran Tuite, Bernard Collins, the local management, the union representative Dave Mullis and the community. The whole lot together presented an opportunity for Collins, who was the spokesperson, to go to meetings through the Travenol empire and dispute the wisdom of closure. However, both of them were let go because they had gone against corporate wishes. Both got back in again and were highly successful with their own lives afterwards.
“Around that time the work started around Lough Lannagh under the CCDA. We had built the enterprise centre. That is now sold and we have given €1 million back to the community. There is €12 million being spent now at the outdoor pursuits academy at GMIT. There are conditions, one of which is a local contribution. The CCDA are putting up €400,000.
“When I started out the thinking was different. We hardly knew how to spell the word strategy, never mind draw up strategic plans.”
In next Tuesday's edition Tom Gillespie talks to Paddy McGuinness, the community man.