New Longford MEP Ciaran Mullooly hits the ground running as he enters negotiations in Brussels

In the early hours of last Friday morning the announcement came from returning officer, Marian Chambers Higgins, that Longford's Ciarán Mullooly had secured the final seat in the Midlands-North-West constituency.

That marathon count had every aspect of a blockbuster thriller, if a little slow paced, as the votes of the 15 county constituency were totted up.

Mr Mullooly, MEP, is now an Independent Ireland politician who serves as a Member of the European Parliament.

He's now in Brussels, along with other Parliamentarians, in the process of brokering deals to establish the makeup of the EU seat of government for the next five years.

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“It's been a real roller-coaster ride, hasn't it?” he says to the Leader during a break in negotiations.

“Eight weeks of running around the country, from the early days of meeting in the Longford Leader on the Market Square, to the top of Donegal, down to Louth and then back to Galway. The campaign was one requiring huge energy.”

The industry necessary to put in such a campaign morphed into something else in Castlebar: “Then we had the slowdown, the counting, the agony and the ecstasy and thankfully, eventually, the elation at the end.”

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After weeks of campaigning the newly minted MEP is coming to terms with his new post: “I'm really pleased, not just for myself and my family, but for the little team we had, a small team of less than 20 people who worked their heart out and got us the victory. A victory for the Midlands and a victory for Common Sense at the end of the day.”

During his campaign Mr Mulloolly identified the environment, agriculture, and food as issues of particular focus. To progress that he now targets committees that influence EU policy in these areas.

“We arrived on Sunday night. I've had a number of friends in the Brussels area for many years, including family, so the groundwork is done,” he outlined, “We started to contact people on the Tuesday of last week when the count was still going on. A lot of great groundwork was done to make contact with people, setting up meetings.”

In the last couple of days the Independent Ireland MEP has been in discussions with Parliamentary groupings to see where he can have the most impact: “The priority for me at this stage is to ensure that I can follow through on my commitments during the campaign, that means a place on the Committee of Agriculture.”

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Having an impact in Brussels and Strasbourg is all about influence on committees. Plumb roles like the Budget Committee or the Environment Committee can determine the effectiveness of a European representative.

“There are about 700 MEPs. The committees are restricted in size, so I'll have to work hard on this. I'm delighted to have my personal advisor, Pat O'Rourke, my Director of Elections, here with me,” he said.

His party, Independent Ireland, secured one MEP and 23 councillors from the 63 candidates they ran in the elections. For a party that's finding its feet this haul of seats is impressive.

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“I'm delighted for Michael FitzMaurice, and the other Independent TD who came together with Michael Collins to set up this party,” Mr Mullooly says, “Michael put a huge effort into my campaign and into the councillors' campaign. To walk away with 23 councillors and one MEP is a fabulous result.

“Personalities are important, but believe me, policies are much more important. I think people should look at the policies that are on the website. There are 12 core policies up there already which kind of say what Independent Ireland stands for. I think politics as we know it will never be the same again.”

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As soon as a deal is done on the continent the new MEP will return to Lanesboro for the Mullooly Hooley: “It's a chance for me to say thank you to people from Longford, Westmeath, Roscommon, and Galway East, who gave up a part of their life for eight weeks to drive me around the constituency day after day.”

“I'm delighted for my family, for my wife, Angela, and the two boys, without whom I could not have engaged in the election to the extent I did.

“My sisters Rose and Ethna were there at the count, that meant an awful lot to me, my brother Donal in New York joined us on Zoom to celebrate. And it was days like that that we missed, greatly missed my late brother Pat and my late sister Nuala. So the Yacht Bar in Lanesboro will be where we will celebrate.”

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