Al McDonnell. . .the last of the old-school Mayo Fianna Fáil breed
by Dr. Richard Martin
Al McDonnell first entered the council chambers in 1987 and has remained there ever since.
That was 37 years ago. He is the longest-serving member of Mayo County Council.
Now he is facing another local election.
In the early noughties, he stopped counting his vote and started weighing it.
He will no doubt be elected again, as is custom.
He will probably place third but could push the Bould Blackie hard for second.
Pondering on whether or not he will be elected is a futile question.
A better question is why? How is he so successful over the decades when the tide has ebbed and flowed for FF?
A simple answer is he is good at his job. A complicated answer would be that he understands exactly what his role is and isn’t.
A surprising number of chamber councillors don’t know what their job entails.
For example, housing is an executive function. Councillors have no say concerning social housing or where Ukrainians and International Protection applicants can and can’t reside.
That is a matter for the council officials only and the central government.
As such, he doesn’t involve himself in weak populist politics which some of his colleagues have concerning immigration.
That’s the mark of a principled politician and a man who knows his brief.
However, councillors within the district and county have a say in the County Development Plan. This is submitted every six years.
This is where councillors have real power, can dialogue with the council, and represent their constituents accordingly.
The architect of that plan is Councillor McDonnell. This is real cerebral imaginative honest politics, where the elected representative acts on behalf of their constituents in a fruitful, sincere and meaningful way.
Councillor McDonnell can and does advocate for his constituents to reverse the terrible decline in rural populations. He feels duty-bound to defend the rights of anybody who wishes to establish a home in a rural area.
The significant decline in the water quality in the Lough Carra ecosystem over the past 20 years prompted Councillor McDonnell to spearhead a campaign to get a committee together to address the crisis in 2020.
As a consequence, the EU has issued a grant of €5 million to be spent over five years to reverse the decline.
Councillor McDonnell was the driving force behind the purchase of MooreHall by Mayo County Council in 2018. It attracted roughly 40,000 tourists in 2023.
Taxpayers’ money that was well spent for the people of Mayo.
Councillor McDonnell avoids nonsensical type of populist politics. Instead, he prefers to represent his constituents realistically and practically. He is a staunch Republican.
Long are the days gone when FF was the ruling party within the state, single-party government was the modus operandi and the thought of being in a coalition government was a form of insanity.
But locally in the Castlebar district FF still has solid old-school representation in Councillor McDonnell.
He is the last of a dying breed within FF.
The national question is always paramount in his thinking. He is a ’real’ Republican and sees himself as such. He’s a member of the republican party and the FF badge isn’t something to be trifled with.
He lives and breathes the republicanism of FF and sees himself and his party as heirs to the Proclamation of 1916. His two feet are firmly in the party.
He doesn’t do the hokey pokey and has one foot in and one foot out. It’s FF or nothing. As such the old-school traditional FF voters flock to him in their droves.
FF has lost huge ground to SF over the years on the national question. Too many of their representatives’ mindsets are indifferent to the six partitioned counties that they might as well be within the FG party.
Today in realpolitik terms FF and FG are more or less identical. In truth, I find it very difficult to see differences in either party’s approach to public policy.
FF traditionally was always more socially conscious and ever so slightly left of centre. They’ve lost that. They allowed themselves to be consumed by big business from the seventies onwards.
Post-crash they still haven’t regained their swagger with the electorate.
The old social housing estates in Castlebar - McHale Road, Marian Row, St. Patrick’s Avenue, St. Bridget’s Crescent - were all the result of FF governance.
The Succession Act, free travel on public transport for pensioners, subsidised electricity for pensioners, the granting of special tax concessions for the disabled and tax exemptions for artists were all FF legislation in a bygone era.
They have lost their way nationally in that regard, and this is where SF has made huge inroads in working-class Ireland.
Councillor McDonnell and I meet at Swirl occasionally buying our morning coffees and after the pleasant pleasantries have been exchanged we then break into an intense debate about Collins and the Treaty or the Arms Crisis for 20 minutes at the Tax Office.
We don’t agree on everything. Irish history and politics are complex, but I’ve found that there is depth and sophistication to his approach to politics and Irish history that is severely lacking in present-day political discourse.
Wisdom and experience leave a distinctive mark. Tanquam ex ungue leonem. I recognise the lion by its claw.
(Dr. Richard Martin is a regular columnist with The Connaught Telegraph).