Mark Duffy initiates new chapter for Fine Gael in north Mayo

By Dr. Richard Martin

I found this hard to write, and it took a while to put it together.

I was driving home from Galway last Wednesday evening, daydreaming about Cantor Sets in traffic on the Quincentennial Bridge.

The traffic moved at a glacial pace and I deliberated over which route to take. Headford or Tuam. Cross or Shrule. The road taken and not taken.

When it came to it, I chose Headford and Cross. I always do. I know not why. I just do. Every day we are faced with choices. Small, insignificant, big and important. Making the right ones, that's the tricky bit.

Mark Duffy was faced with a choice. A big choice.

Remain a popular but largely ineffectual county councillor or join a major political party (take flak for 'selling out') and deliver for the people of Ballina and north Mayo.

He made a decision. He chose to represent FG in the upcoming GE. In my view, it was the only road and the right choice.

FG crave a credible candidate that they can believe in on Moyside. They were virtually wiped out in north Mayo in the last GE in 2020.

Rose Conway-Walsh swept the boards all the way across from Belmullet to Charlestown. Calleary held his own in Ballina. FG were a token force.

One of the key strategists in the FG party in Mayo is Darragh Loftus from Castlebar. He is their director of elections. According to FG sources, Darragh Loftus pursued Mark Duffy aggressively.

FG knew that it was crucial to add him to the ticket not just for the upcoming GE but also for the future.

Mark Duffy is only 32. A poll topping independent councillor. He ticks all the boxes required. FG landed a good coup on the Moy. The bait was the Dáil and bringing Ballina out of the doldrums.

The relationship between FG and Mark Duffy is symbiotic. FG need him. They need a fresh start in north Mayo. But he needs them. If he was to advance his political career, he had to join a major party. That's realpolitik baby. Darragh ‘Kissinger’ Loftus got his man.

I first met Mark in 2022. I was teaching in St. Muredach's at the time. In between classes, I'd wander down the town for an hour.

Go into the Post House for a sandwich and then walk over to Michelle's Bakery for a coffee and a treat. One day I was in Michelle's and I saw a dapper young man in a suit wearing a quiff working on his laptop whom I recognised. I approached him.

‘Are you Mark Duffy?’ He looked up and smiled. ‘I am,’ he said. ‘Can I join you?’ ‘No problem.’

I liked him from the off, and I can see why Ballina back him to the hilt. Young. Energetic. Charismatic. Intelligent. Earnest.

A Ballina townie, who wants to see them on the map. A local lad who's tired of mediocrity. Ballina and north Mayo have fallen way behind.

The infrastructure is appalling. The sports facilities are primitive. Pyrite is rampant. The system is moving at an inertial pace.

We had a nice conversation.

He told me he returned to Mayo in 2019 and won a seat in the council and worked full time as a politician and activist.

P. Flynn once said: 'It was very easy to follow Charlie Haughey in those years.' Duffy has that spark. Beverley has it. Kenny has it. It's presence, basically.

When they're in a room, you know they're in it. We saw it when he welcomed Biden to Ballina. Ballina want and crave someone they can follow. They want leadership.

Mark Duffy fits that bill.

Calleary dropped the ball. He was at cabinet, the seat of power. The question many of the electorate will have is will he get back there again? I hope he does. But, politics isn't the place for sentiment. It's the old adage.

You have it. Mind it, and mind it well. Ballina and Mayo lost a senior minister the day he walked into that meal in Connemara.

Enda Kenny was the only one to avoid the trap. It's only natural for the electorate in Ballina and north Mayo to wonder if Calleary will ever make his way back to the cabinet table.

It wasn't fair what happened. It was a storm in a teacup, but Mayo lost a place at cabinet that day in the teacup.

Calleary deserves another crack at the top table but that's a discussion for another day.

After it was announced that Mark Duffy was joining the FG team, I sent him a text asking if he would meet for an interview with Alison and me.

No problem, said he. We met in front of the TF and chatted for an hour. Always dressed impeccably with the quiff immaculate.

Personally, I like his company. In the words of a scouser - he's a good lad, a groove. He quickly dispelled the notion that he was from an FF background.

He emphasised he was from a Ballina background. He and his family always supported Ballina candidates.

I sensed from sitting with him a restlessness and an impatience with how things were done. If nothing changes, nothing changes.

I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he was frustrated with the bureaucratic inertia. As a county councillor, you have all the responsibility and none of the power.

As a member of the Dáil, you have a chance to make a real effectual difference. Well then. How do you want to make a difference, I asked.

He was prepared for this one. N26. N58. Orbital ring-road in Ballina. Another bridge over the Moy. Major infrastructural projects need to be delivered to Ballina and north Mayo. The north of the county has fallen behind.

Mark explained that Ballina can't grow and attract major international business if the proper infrastructure isn't in place.

I could feel the urgency, intensity and passion as he tapped his foot and talked about his hometown.

I asked him about the housing crisis. What was his take on it. Build, he said. Output needs to be tripled and developers need to be helped not hindered. There's too much red tape.

There needs to be aggressive rezoning of land and we need to produce more skilled tradespeople. He thought that the ATU in Castlebar would be a perfect place to set up a trade school. It's impossible to build a house without a plumber or an electrician.

We segued on to the subject of the ATU and what it meant to him. He talked about the enormous debt of gratitude he has for the ATU (GMIT). It saved him. After school he didn't know what he wanted to do. Most don't. I didn't. It's hard to know at 18.

The CAO form can be a roulette table for some. He commuted every day from Ballina to the GMIT and played soccer. It gave him focus. He completed a degree in business and was the Student Union President in his final year. Mark described it as unfortunately Mayo's best kept secret.

He spoke of how when the downturn came a lot of people who'd been in the construction industry and had been made redundant returned to further education in the GMIT. The GMIT saved them too.

My impression is that the GMIT has been in the shadow of Galway for too long. The campus needs major investment. It needs modern sporting facilities. A running track. But, crucially, it needs more autonomy. I said all this. He agreed. His hands gesticulated purposely and calmly.

His response was that GMIT knows best. Castlebar knows best. Ballina knows best and Mayo knows best. We NEED more autonomy in the west of Ireland.

The towns need their town councils back. I don't want to interfere in Castlebar. The people of Castlebar knows what's best for Castlebar.

The chat came to an natural end. He had to rush back to a council meeting.

I've thought about it long and hard. Calleary and Duffy will split Ballina between them.

Calleary is the present. Duffy is the future. One way or another Ballina will be at the seat of power.

It's long overdue.

Duffy is on the road to the cabinet table.