"We need to get back to basics and build again" - Mayo Councillor Harry Barrett

by Dr. Richard Martin

I first met Harry Barrett in September 1998. Twenty-seven years ago.

He was my teacher for my final year in St. Patrick's National School, Castlebar.

For me, sixth class was when things starting moving and grooving. I had some good teachers up to that point. Mrs. Molloy and Mrs. Neary. They stood out. Brilliant teachers.

Harry had the unique ability to make the classroom fun, interesting and productive all at once.

All of us actively enjoyed going to school. He was a master at striking that balance between fun and learning. Too much fun leads to chaos. That never works. A classroom that’s too uptight and serious can become boring very quickly.

I know from my own experience that it takes a real master to reach that ‘goldilocks zone’ where the classroom is a hive of activity, students are learning and enjoying what they are doing simultaneously. None of us had been exposed to that type of learning environment before.

We were exposed to independent learning for the first time in my life. Instead of being told what to think and what to learn we were told to think for ourselves. Pick a topic, any topic. Go away yourself and read about it, write about it and tell us about it.

Every week we had to complete a ‘project’ of some description and write about it on a large A3 page which we then adorned on the classroom wall. I vividly remember Brendan O’Dowd’s one on the ‘Tremendous Toilet’ in which he outlined how a toilet works and who invented it, etc. He was the ‘Student of the Week’ winner that week.

Like all great teachers his influence has followed me for over a quarter of a century now. This week it was a real treat to sit down and chat.

RM: When did you actually stand for your first election?

HB: I stood in 2004. I was a member of the Labour Party and I was asked to stand.

RM: Just the town council, right?

HB: I said I didn't want to do it. Johnny Mee said, ‘Ara go on. You won't get elected, but you might enjoy the craic.’

RM: How did you find Johnny Mee?

HB: I found Johnny Mee to be a brilliant, brilliant politician, but a great human being. Great human being, you know.

RM: Did you see him as a mentor?

HB: Absolutely saw him as a mentor. Yeah. Absolutely, you know. The canvass with Johnny was an experience.

RM: Really?

HB: The canvass of Johnny Mee was an experience. Johnny knew people forensically and he genuinely wanted to know. Genuinely wanted to know.

RM: You know, the amazing thing is I met him recently. It wasn't that he knew my father. He knew my great-grandfather, Willie Martin. He used to deliver milk on McHale Road.

Very genuine, solid man, you know. Would you see him as an influence even today in how you think about things?

HB: Sometimes yeah I do think what would he do? Sometimes, I do ring him for advice. I'd always go whichever way he would tell me to go on the issue.

RM: Because I've met him and I sort of feel that just from talking to you now that you're both just on the same wavelength completely.

HB: He always prided himself on his knowledge of the people he tried to serve. If I can do even half or less than half of what he did in that regard. And it's because he came from them. He came from them, Richard.

RM: Yeah, yeah. He's one of us.

HB: He saw their struggles. He saw how hard it is. He saw what it's like to have no money. He came from them. And all I'm saying is if I can do a fifth of what he did in this period, I'd be very, very happy.

RM: So you ran in 2004 but were subsequently co-opted to the town council before the 2009 election.

HB: I was co-opted about two months before the 2009 election when I won a seat.

RM: So the reason I'm asking all of this is that you stood for a lot of elections, right? Did you stand for a general election?

HB: I did. I stood for the general in 2007, for the Labour Party.

RM: What I'm saying is that you've been at this for a very long time, for 20 years. And you've had a lot of setbacks.

And finally, you made the big breakthrough last year. But was there ever a point where you said, I'm giving up on this? Because you're on your own now. You didn't have the party badge.

It's literally 10 times harder to make it as an independent.

HB: It is, yeah. It's very hard. Even for the likes of Michael Kilcoyne. And he tops the poll every time. But even Michael, I think, you know, he had a couple of failed attempts before he really got going. That's the way of the independent.

RM: How did you keep going?

HB: It's like a Mayo football team. You don't give up. And if you have an interest in, you've got to keep going.

RM: What did it feel like when you, when you knew you were going to be elected?

HB: Amazing, amazing feeling. You know, it's very emotional.

It was great for my sons to see it in action as well. Because they would have seen all these disappointments down through the years.

And for them to see it finally coming through. I was just, I was worried in case they'd see me falling at the last hurdle again, you know. But it came out the right side this time.

RM: I read a piece in the CT recently where you were on about Fontaine's DC playing in Castlebar?

HB: Well, I was thinking a lot about this.

I think about Paddy McGuinness and others of this town.

All of the people who made something out of nothing when they set up the Castlebar International Song Contest. They brought this town on. It was a major, major lift to the town for many, many years.

And I'm just thinking Castlebar has to get back to that level, has to get back to that sort of era again. It's bringing big acts into this town.

It's stating its case on a bigger stage. And I think now with the Connacht-Munster game, that's one. If we get Fontaines DC to come, that's sending a signal out that Castlebar is open for business again and we're moving.

RM: Have you been in contact with Fontaine's DC?

HB: We've been in contact. They say if we can get a venue, they're interested maybe in 2027.

RM: But who was talking to them?

HB: David Mellett. He's the head of the Castlebar MD and he made the contact with them. If it happens, it would be amazing though because they're a world-famous band. It'd be like a homecoming thing. I think it'd be amazing for those lads too to come back home. I'd love to see it, yeah.

RM: Why did you first decide to get into politics?

HB: The politics started for me in about 2004. And I had two young sons in the town at the time. I noticed there was no playground or any play facilities for the kids in Castlebar.

There was no sort of real political side to me up to that point. I decided to join the Labour Party. I suppose it was harking back to my dad.

He was a SIPTU official. He was a council worker. He was foreman on the council.

So I suppose I was absorbing a lot by his need to help out fellow workers, representations, getting them basic amenities.

RM: You grew up in Belmullet, right?

HB: I'm 27 years in Castlebar. I was only over 10 in Belmullet. So I'm over two and a half times the length in Castlebar that I was over in Belmullet. But yeah, I would have spent from age seven to 17 in Belmullet.

RM: Are you enjoying the work?

HB: The work is interesting. Very, very interesting. But I can see a change in Castlebar.

There's a massive need for housing in this town and I can see the affect it's having on people.

RM: Can you do anything about that though, as a councillor? I mean, do you have the power? That's not having to go at you, but like...

HB: Well, that's the first thing I want to put it out there that it's a major, major issue. And it's not just a problem with people who are looking for council houses anymore.

It's extended now into the middle class people, into people who are working. People who are going to work in jobs around this town are struggling to pay their rent. I know because they're telling me. The struggle that young people in this town and young couples are having to pay their rent is making them poorer.

That is a fundamental idea I want to get across and it's growing. It's growing. And you're not going to hear that from certain councillors.

You will hear it from me. That's why I'm here and that's why people put me there. Because people are struggling to find a place to live, they're paying excessive rents and if you're paying excessive rent, you're poorer.

RM: There's huge dereliction in Castlebar. What’s your take on it?

HB: We are the brand leaders in dereliction in this country. We are the top of the pile. There are more derelict properties than any other county. And we do the least about it.

I do feel that there's a lack of enforcement on the dereliction. It's just in my mind's eye now, I can think of a good few properties around and there's kind of notices on them, but there should be requisition orders on them.

It's labour intensive to do something about it. The problem with Mayo County Council is that there aren’t enough staff to do anything about it.

The law is there, but they don't have the staff to enforce it. They need more staff. And that's the first thing I did when I came on to the council was to say, you need at least four extra derelict sites officers to police this.

We also have to talk about Airbnb and this is something else that other councillors will not talk about. You know, go on to Airbnb tonight, there's going to be a thousand Mayo properties on Airbnb tonight, short term let. There will be only 45 long term lets. And that has to change.

I have nothing against people having their properties in Airbnb. We all have property rights, but it has to be regulated.

It started off as a platform where you let out one room.

Now it's full houses, three and four bedroom houses and that's killing people.

RM: Do you think they should be taxed really?

HB: I think they should be taxed.

I think they should be regulated and I think they should be incentivised to bring their properties back onto the long-term again. There has to be more incentives to property owners to rent them out to young couples again.

Our conversation went on for some time after that. It was great to catch up for an hour with an old friend and mentor.

It’s funny how life evolves with the passage of time. Is ait an mac an saol. Life is a fast moving train. I’m just glad I met this man on the journey.