Longford Euro elections: Community at heart of Mullooly campaign

In June of 2023 The Longford Leader ran the headline “Longford's Ciaran Mullooly pours cold water on Fianna Fáil Euro bid”.
The rumour mill had churned out speculation that the former RTE correspondent was being courted by FF to secure a seat after the previous unsuccessful bids by party stalwarts Brendan Smith and Anne Rabbitte in 2019.

After days of missed calls the Lanesboro native eventually told the paper: “I am running for nobody, I have made no decision on it at present. Come back to me after Christmas.”

Fast forward 10 months and the sufficiently vague proclamation left enough wriggle room to avoid being called a U turn.
Calling to The Leader offices to outline his campaign he jovially rebuffs the suggestion that he changed his mind: “I've been approached by, in the last 30 years, Fianna Fáil, Labour and Fine Gael,” he counts them off on his fingers, “The only party I haven't had an approach from is Sinn Féin,” he laughs.

The journalist, author and broadcaster would be a clever choice for an established party to get on their ticket: he was a familiar face on TV screens with the national broadcaster for 27 years before announcing his retirement in June 2021.
He started his career as a reporter in the Longford Leader in 1985, then worked on the Ear To The Ground show before becoming the broadcaster's Midlands correspondent in 1995. Not long after he parted ways with RTE he took a post with Longford County Council as the EUJTF Tourism Activator.

So as the 2024 Euro ballot approaches he explained why he has set his sights on the Brussels/Strasbourg gig: “I ruled them all out because I had a busy job, in the first instance,” he says “In the second instance, I reinvented myself in community development.

“I was working away at it. I was trying to make progress independently. And that's the key to my running.”
In the forthcoming European Elections he stands as the Independent Ireland candidate for the Midlands North West constituency.
That party was set up by Independent TD Michael Collins and Richard O’Donoghue last November, with three Dáil representatives.

“I'm independently minded,” the EU hopeful said, “I stand up, I don't take instructions that easily from people. I suppose the only thing that changed was when Michael Fitzmarsh contacted me on the day that Leo Varadkar resigned.
“He said 'if you join us, you hold on to your independence, there's no whip on issues of conscience'.
“I said, well, are you not going? He said, 'no, I'm not, I hope to lead our own group into the Dáil and look for a place in government, and we want you to be our voice in Europe'.”

The choice of Mr Mullooly as the Independent Ireland candidate presents a curious kink in the non-aligned political party landscape. Back in September 2014 Michael Fitzmaurice looked to pick up the seat Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan left upon his departure to the seat of European government.

Mr Fitzmaurice and Mr Flanagan had been bedfellows in the campaign against the turf-cutting ban. Flanagan threw his support the way of the independent in the Roscommon-South Leitrim by-election.
Now Mr Fitzmaurice, in a constituency that spans 13 counties, is anointing a candidate who lives 45 kilometres away from the sitting Independent MEP.

“I hadn't thought about that. It's very true,” Ciaran says of the observation, “People keep saying to me, are you in this election to displace Ming Flanagan or Maria Walsh? I say I'm not.
“This was a four-seater constituency. There's four sitting MEPs, but now there's a new seat. It's a fifth seat. And Laois Offaly has come back into it. I want the fifth seat. I want to be a voice for farming. I want to be a voice for rural areas.”
Campaigning on rural and farming issues is a recurring theme of the Independent Ireland candidate. He cites the new party's manifesto as a document that is focused on rural Ireland.

“There's a vast array of things in it that are going to change life for people in the country if he's [Michael Fitzmaurice] successful. He says he will go into government on the basis of those manifestos, those headline issues being in the next programme for government,” Mr Mulloly said.

Practical measures are detailed in the document, like announced farm inspections, and the Independent Ireland candidate lauds his party colleague: “He knows farming in this country and he knows the practicalities of it.
“Farming is in real, real difficulty, particularly in County Longford. We have serious issues in County Longford for one reason, with regard to the number of farmers.

“That's the Bòrd na Mona situation. We had lots and lots of small farmers with small holdings and small numbers of animals, but stayed in business in those holdings because they had jobs through April, May, June, July, and August with Bòrd na Mona
“In the height of the harvesting season, they could be paid €1,000, €1,500, even more. They returned to farming in the winter. Now the job in the summer is gone and the reality is that the winter small farming enterprise of its own is not viable any more.”

Mr Mullooly offers a word of warning about the current policy: “Are we going to end up with just ranches, or are we going to offer support to small farmers before that happens?”
Independent Ireland hopes to run a total of 60 candidates in the local and European elections.
Though the party has a broad base the Lanesboro candidate says they are not intransigent when it comes to change: “I want to crack this environmental issue on the head right from start. We are not anti-climate change. I agree 100% with the process in terms of rehabilitation of the bogs.”

He says that if elected he has a clear line of running: “My ambition will be to get elected, number one, that's my first challenge. Number two, to get into a grouping that will allow me the opportunity to get significant places on committees.
“Environment, agriculture, food, those areas in particular. Those are the committees I want to be on. If I'm not in the right grouping, supporting the right group or the right party, I probably won't get those seats.
“I won't be announcing before the election what grouping I'll be going into. I'll be looking very carefully at groupings like Renew, but I'm not committing to it,” he said.

He flatly rejects the suggestion that he is a “celebrity candidate” who is “going for a cushy job”.
“Neither fair nor accurate,” he asserts, “I'd say, for starters, I've been involved in community development for over 40 years. I was the youth officer in Longford County Board of the GAA when I was, what, 19 or 20 years of age, going around the county organising coaching courses with Sean Casey from Newtowncashel.

“I've been involved in everything from the Lions Club here in Longford, to the soccer in Ballyborough Soccer Club, where we developed the AstroTurf pitch. My point being, I'm coming to this as a community worker.”
That community activity also saw him work with Pieta House and other voluntary bodies.
Such endeavours may play well to a local audience, but in a constituency with a population of 1,831,741 having a broader view is very important.

Mr Mullooly says the maxim 'all politics is local' is applicable: “I would say of any town in Longford or the Midlands, look around you. Most towns, at one stage, had probably 10 pubs, probably five groceries, three newsagents, and an array of everything else. Now look around you today.

“Look at the closures. Look at what has closed up. Ask yourself, could government policy, or European policy, have done more?
“Could there be a bit of common sense about European policy? We're seeing shops closing and restaurants closing every week and I want a chance to help change that.”
Midlands North West MEP Ciaran Mullooly spoke to the Leader on the Longford leg of a canvass which will see him in all 13 counties before the Friday, June 7 election.