Pride of place at a conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, today will go to an 88-year-old Dubliner who is probably Ireland's oldest and longest-serving councillor in the Republic.
Jim Flanagan has been a local representative since 1945, having first been elected to serve as a Town Commissioner for his adopted home place, Edenderry.
Today he will take his place with 300 councillors, from Ireland and from local authorities in England and Wales, at the annual conference of the General Council of County Councils.
Jim Flanagan was born in 1910 on Dublin's north side. His father was active in the Old IRA and his earliest memory is of the brutal treatment handed down to his family and neighbours by the Black and Tans, the British army and the police.
"My father was interned in Ballykinlar and I remember when he was in prison. The treatment we got then as a family and as a people made me very independent," he says.
It also made him unafraid to challenge authority, which he did in 1945 when he decided to run for the Edenderry Town Commissioners for the Labour Party.
"I had moved to Edenderry, where my family had an engineering plant. That was in 1928 and I married a local girl and settled down. I got interested in politics and wanted to go for the town council, but that was controlled by the local parish priest, who had a panel of nine names which he was putting forward.
"Basically he said there should be no election, and I took him on and said I was going to run and he came to see me and told me he would put my name forward.
"He came out on horseback to see me, and I told him I wanted an election and I would not be handcuffed by him. There was an election and the people voted me on to the commissioners and I have been there since, topping the poll," he adds.
He was later to make firm friends with the priest and in 1955 was elected to Offaly County Council, where he has remained since. He has also served on the local health board and other regional bodies.
"There was fierce ignorance and fear then. They were afraid of the priest and all authority. Because of my background, I feared no one, and I believed then, as I now believe, in democracy."
Councillors were treated like dirt by county managers and their officials, he says, something he didn't accept: on one occasion he threw eggs at a county manager and his officials in the council chamber.
"Things have changed a lot since those days. People are more educated and will not take any nonsense. People are growing up, and not before time."
He parted company with the Labour Party and has been an independent councillor in every way since then, putting forward his views on the world and fighting for his town and his supporters.
Earlier this week he said he would seek to retain his seat again at the next local government elections if his health remains good. "I still have things to contribute and as long as I am able to make a contribution, I'll keep at it."