Sinn Féin set to regain council seat in Mayo's Erris barony

by Caoimhín Rowland

Belmullet celebrated its 200th anniversary with a unique Mayo Day celebration that placed the beautiful town on the map.

There was a palpable sense of excitement across the town as it aimed to replicate the roaring success of Ballina’s celebrations last year.

Belmullet, like Westport, was a planned town, but its modern incarnations couldn’t be any different. Its similarities with its municipal district brethren ends along the coastline.

Lagging infrastructure and a never ending tale of emigration embattle the barony much worse than any other part of Mayo, perhaps even Ireland.

Close to 50 young people, educated in this country and with roots in Erris have left in the last two years. That’s a colossal figure and a direct threat to the viability of the storied peninsula’s future.

The dreadful condition of the R312 has seen many Belmullet folk utilise the Lahardane-Pontoon route to make it to the county town for medical appointments.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh has flagged the deteriorating road for years now, but without power in Dáil Éireann and the only Sinn Féin councillor as far away from her town as geographically possible, any noise has gone unheard.

Belmullet is Mayo’s Texas, everything is bigger in the vast expanse of heather and deserted bog as you travel from Bellacorrick passing the Giant’s Gap into Glencastle.

The area produces a sizeable amount of our energy needs, via wind, gas and now mooted offshore. The return from that has been minimal.

Politically, it’s a split ticket, Fianna Fáil’s Sean Carey and Fine Gael’s long-standing stalwart Gerry Coyle.

Sinn Féin, expectedly, have a strong candidate in Rose Lally. Deputy Conway-Walsh will be keen to offload some constituency clinics to a local councillor and Lally looks set to take a seat in the chamber.

Carey, you would suspect, is the man to lose out for Lally, considering he is a first time councillor and his party is ailing. Gerry Coyle’s position as Erris poll topper is more interestingly under severe threat.

Michael Ring is expected to announce his retirement from politics in the aftermath of the local elections, his popularity is unrivalled in Erris.

In fact Coyle has ran on the coat tails of the Westport Fine Gael giant for some time, but as Ring and Coyle both know, time waits for no one.

Party establishment has rowed in behind Pat Chambers, a veteran of the IFA. He’s based in a tricky area of Tiernaur and will struggle to sway voters in Achill away from their man Paul McNamara (FF). Instead he may find more joy in Coyle’s back yard.

Another threat to the Geesala auctioneer is that his long-term political right-hand man, Micheal O’Conaill, left him to run for the Green party in Coyle’s Belmullet.

An eye-brow raising defection from Coyle HQ but even more so is the choice of party.

To say the Green party are unpopular in the traditional rural Erris would be the understatement of year.

Despite this, Eamon Ryan insisted last summer that the Greens will get a councillor elected in Mayo.

But with only a few weeks remaining only two have braved to put their name on the ballot, Peter Nolan from Louisburgh running in Westport and O’Conaill in Belmullet. It would be the shock of all shocks to see either hit the quota.

Bangor Erris also has a candidate looking to draw votes from Gerry Coyle - John Paul Carey has entered the running as an independent.

Bangor Erris has seen a huge decline in recent years and Carey, a local contractor, has leaflets stating ‘It’s Time for Change’.

Rural decline has been a hot topic in Erris, but in Bangor Erris the chronic shortage of housing has massively hampered the town itself.

A region that knows emigration better than anywhere also has several successful descendants on foreign shores keen to reinvest that wealth in their native land, but that cannot occur if there’s nowhere to stay and live.

Gerry Coyle is 25 years in Mayo County Council this year, first elected in 1999. This year, there is a perfect storm attacking him from all directions.

Ring’s retirement, a confidant’s defection and a trend away from established parties may point toward a surprise loss of one of the council chamber’s most recognisable characters.

BELMULLET PREDICTION:

FF (1 seat), FG (1), SF (1).