The Bould Blackie and the big Mayo general election question
by Dr. Richard Martin
Castlebar Councillor Blackie Gavin was elected with 1,779 first preference votes in the 2019 local elections and elected on the first count with a 12.8 per cent share of the vote.
In 2014 his first preference vote was 1,127 and he received 7.3 per cent of the first preference vote share.
He was elected on the eighth and final count on that occasion and was sixth in the running order.
So why the sudden jump in his popularity between 2014 and 2019?
One word. Whinger.
The minute Enda Kenny called people in his home town of Castlebar ‘All-Ireland whingers’ at a General Election campaign rally on a Saturday evening in February 2016, everyone knew who he was referring to.
The bould Blackie.
It was an off-the-cuff remark and the Taoiseach apologised. It must’ve been frustrating to try and steer your country out of national bankruptcy and then to hear disquiet on the home turf.
After all, it was FF governance that bankrupted the state. But the fact is that this town had major clout over six years and it wasn’t capitalised on in the way it should’ve been.
Given Kenny’s great personal relationship with Angela Merkel, he should’ve been able to secure major German business for the west.
It would’ve been a major coup for Knock airport too, the airport he famously voted against.
The Imperial Hotel has been rotting away in front of our eyes for well over a decade. It’s owned by the state. It’s a building of national importance.
The OPW should’ve taken over and gotten on with the job. The Barracks are in a state of pitiful neglect. Kenny did nothing. The core of our town. Derelict and neglected.
Blackie tapped into the hurt, anger and perceived betrayal. ‘Not a penny, Kenny’, he regularly uttered.
He’s a lad from the bottom of the town. A proud Castlebar man. Grit. Determination. Graft. Hunger. Ambition. He’s prone to bouts of populist politics.
He loves photographs. He’s in more photographs than Chairman Mao. But from my perspective, he votes exactly the way a Castlebar-based representative should vote.
Castlebar first. Castlebar Number One.
In 2021, €11 million was given to the town to spend on various projects, including the Imperial and the Barracks.
He, along with Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, voted to spend the allocated €6 million on the Imperial. The other five councillors voted to sell the building to a hotel group, which hasn’t yet materialised.
Logically, emotionally, instinctively and intuitively, Gavin and Kilcoyne are right.
The building can only ever be a public building.
He is always involved at the heart of community projects.
The Races of Castlebar were revived last August through the Lions Club. It was a major boost to the town.
Ronan Moran and Darragh Loftus were the architects of the revival.
They drove the project from start to finish. But Blackie was indispensable from start to finish. GMA funding. Logistics. Experience. Hard work. Energy. Enthusiasm. Pride.
It was a combined effort and the right people made it happen.
Councillor Gavin will come in second place after Councillor Kilcoyne next June.
But what about the General Election in 2025?
Who will be the FF candidate? Senator Chambers is currently running for Europe.
Those elections happen simultaneously with the locals in June.
What happens if she wins a seat and high-tails it off to Brussels?
Who then replaces her? Numerous names have been mentioned. Cillian O’Connor, Barry Moran and others.
It’s only a matter of time before the Flynn dynasty rises again.
But, the Bould Blackie will have other ideas. He’s one of the most competitive devils known to man. He’s enormously popular in the town.
He has great Westport connections. He has built up a profile right across the county.
He’s the one candidate that Sinn Féin would hate to see coming in a general election. The 3,000 votes that went 50 miles up the road at the last GE would stay where they belong in Castlebar.
Much as he is loathed in certain FG circles locally, secretly FG would be delighted if he ran. He would hurt SF, not FG, and if he failed that would finally put manners on him, in FG’s view.
I met an elderly FG stalwart a few weeks back at the traffic lights on Ellison Street. We talked about politics as we always do.
I suggested that Blackie might be the next FF GE candidate.
The poor man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head and he started foaming at the mouth and the last I saw of him was he doing cartwheels down Ellison Street. That’s the sign of a good candidate.
Polarising. Love him. Loathe him. FF have lost touch with their working-class roots. Blackie is the quintessential working-class FF operator.
People have been underestimating him for 30 years.
A wily, shrewd operator.
He’s never lost an election.
He wouldn’t be far off the fifth and final seat in a GE. And let’s face it.
If Ring can be all things to all people in rural Ireland, why wouldn’t the town plumber from Castlebar be just as good if not better?