Cllr Seamus McGrath (FF) was elected County Mayor of Cork at last week’s Cork County Council AGM.
CLLR Seamus McGrath (FF) was elected County Mayor of Cork at last week’s Cork County Council AGM.
Cllr McGrath, whose late father Jack came from Bantry, defeated the Sinn Féin candidate Michael ‘Frick’ Murphy by 29 votes to seven and he was elected with the support of Independent councillors, with Fine Gael abstaining from the vote.
Cllr Kevin Conway (Ind) was then elected Deputy Mayor, which was not contested by the other parties.
Mayor McGrath and his wife Gail were joined in the chamber by their five-month-old daughter Jenna, his mother Maire and other members of the McGrath family, including his brother Michael McGrath, Fianna Fáil deputy and finance spokesman.
‘Today is the greatest day of my working life so far and it’s an honour to be elected Mayor of the great county of Cork. Through your support, you have given me that honour and I will do my level best to carry out the role in a manner benefitting the office of Mayor,’ said Cllr McGrath.
The new mayor has been a Council member since 2007 and he has been the leader of Fianna Fáil on the Council for the past two years.
Cllr McGrath accepted the chain of office from outgoing Mayor Cllr John Paul O’Shea, who said that the past year had been a wonderful achievement for him and that he was the first ever-Independent councillor to be elected Mayor.
‘It was a privilege and an honour to represent Cork county as their first citizen for the last 12 months. Given that Cork county is the largest local authority outside of Dublin, it was a very busy year with a capital and revenue spend of over €400m,’ said Cllr O’Shea.
‘I had the pleasure of attending many functions and events as Mayor and seeing this wonderful county progress economically and socially,’ he said. ‘I want to thank everyone who supported me during the year and also to the many welcomes I received throughout the county during my term. It was indeed my pleasure.’
