Mayo’s political system is far from reflective of its society
by The Tallyman
The latest attempt to encourage more women to become involved in public life in Mayo has been made by South West Mayo Development Company.
The organisation had to close registration for a free online course entitled See Her Elected (SHE), such was the demand.
The fact the programme attracted such interest is very good news for local democracy and the hope is that it will be transferred into a rise in female candidates contesting the next local elections in 2024.
The hope is that it will show a significant rise from the 2019 contest when just 10 of the 65 candidates contesting the 30 seats in six electoral areas were women.
The district with the greatest representation was Belmullet with 33%, outgoing Sinn Féin representative Teresa Whelan and Fine Gael's Breege Grealis among the six candidates for the three seats, Whelan losing out to Fianna Fáil newcomer Sean Carey for the last seat.
However, the Ballina area had the highest number with three, outgoing Fianna Fáil Councillor Annie May Reape, who was re-elected for a sixth term, Fine Gael's Aileen Horkan and Tracey Smyth of the Social Democrats.
Swinford, disappointingly, did not have any.
The district with the biggest population, Castlebar, only had one, but Fine Gael newcomer Donna Sheridan was successful on her first venture, thanks to a first preference return of 804.
Natasha Warde (Sinn Féin) and Mags Sheehan (Green Party) were contenders in the Claremorris area, the former reaching 1,079 votes, and being eliminated after the penultimate count.
Outgoing Fine Gael councillor Tereasa McGuire and the Green Party's Cissy Nayiga were among the 11 candidates in Westport, Tereasa losing her seat after the fifth count.
From the perspective of gender balance, having two of the 30 seats on Mayo County Council filled by women is far from reflective of society as a whole which, obviously, is not a healthy situation.
This issue, of course, has been debated for many years, so much so that an onus is in place on the country's main political parties to ensure a gender balance is reached in the selection of candidates for general elections.
This has helped to some degree.
For example, Mayo has elected a female TD at every general election since 2002 when Beverley Flynn (FF) became the first in the county to do so, her achievement being subsequently emulated by Michelle Mulherin (FG), Lisa Chambers (FF) and Rose Conway-Walsh (FG).
Flynn remains the only one to serve two terms, having been re-elected as an independent in 2007.
The constituency went close to electing two women TDs in the 2020 general election, Chambers losing out to Alan Dillon for the last seat, Conway-Walsh having being elected earlier.
Further encouragement was provided in the European Parliament elections when two female MEPs were elected in the North West constituency, Mayo's Maria Walsh and outgoing Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, who has since being appointed a Commissioner.
In these parts, there is already speculation that Walsh could be a Fine Gael candidate in Mayo in the next general election in the event of Michael Ring opting to retire from office.
Let's hope educational programmes like SHE will further help to change the course of Irish politics with Ireland having its first female Taoiseach within the next decade or so.