A major split has emerged among Fianna Fáil members on the new 40-seat Limerick City and County Council.
Less than a week after becoming the largest party on the merged local authority, Fianna Fáil has lost four of its 13 councillors who have described themselves as “Independent Fianna Fáil”.
The split emerged after Councillor Eddie Ryan lost out on becoming leader of the party and long-serving Councillor Kieran O’Hanlon failed in his bid for the position of deputy leader.
Cousins Michael and James Collins were elected as leader and deputy leader at the group’s first meeting on Thursday.
Break away
Four of the newly elected FF members subsequently indicated their intention to break away from the party and form an independent block. The four are Mr Ryan, Mr O’Hanlon, Kevin Sheahan, Joe Crowley.
“Bearing in mind that I have given 34 years service to Fianna Fáil this wasn’t an easy thing to do,” Mr Ryan said.
“I had felt a little bit hard done by – no question about that. I felt Kieran O’Hanlon was equally hard done by, and I felt there was no gap for consensus in the meeting room of the 13 people. There was a bullish attitude and an approach in that room that I didn’t particularly like, and it’s not my way of doing business.”
Mentor
Newly elected Councillor Joe Crowley admitted it was an unfortunate start to his career as a local representative: “It was the last thing you could even dream would happen. The biggest thing was to get elected, certainly I couldn’t imagine this at all, but I do stand firm and say that Kieran [O’Hanlon] was very instrumental in me becoming a councillor.
“I do regard him as a mentor,” he said, “and would be supporting him 100 per cent on the council.”
“If we have to be labelled then I think we would label ourselves as independent Fianna Fail,” he added.