With many politicians leaving the career, one former councillor is bucking the trend and returning. Noel O’Donovan tells editor SIOBHÁN CRONIN why he has opted to pursue a Council seat and leave his garda uniform behind
WHILE the direction of movement for most politicians is one way – out – a former West Cork councillor has bucked the trend by returning to the fold.
Rossmore native Noel O’Donovan said goodbye to Fine Gael, after six years in Cork County Council, in 2017 to join An Garda Síochána.
But four years later he was enticed back out again by the party, and has thrown his name in the ring for a Council seat once more, running in the Skibbereen/West Cork electoral area.
Noel O'Donovan during his time as a garda.
Currently managing the family’s Londis store in Rosscarbery, Noel says politics has always been in his blood, and it’s hard to argue that with a man whose great grand uncle Sean Hayes was the first TD for Cork South West, in 1918.
Incidentally, Hayes was also an editor of The Southern Star for a time.
At the age of 15, O’Donovan joined Young Fine Gael in Cork South West and continued his interest while in UCC where he studied commerce. He was co-opted to Cork County Council after his predecessor Jim Daly was elected to the Dáil. It was, ironically, Jim’s decision to quit politics entirely which saw O’Donovan spotting an opportunity to return to the fold after his time serving as a garda in Wexford.
But a high profile row about candidate selection in Cork South West before the 2020 election saw O’Donovan embroiled in an unsightly tug-of-war between two factions of the party.
After Cllr Karen Coakley – now an independent – was selected to run alongside Tim Lombard on the FG ticket, a petition was signed by 600 members of the 800-strong party in Cork South West, seeking O’Donovan’s addition also.
Minister Paschal Donohoe, then the party’s director of elections, intervened to calm the situation but ultimately O’Donovan was not added to the ticket. This was a surprise to the former garda, given, as he says himself, that he had been specifically asked to leave the force by the party, to pursue a political career.
‘It was a frustrating time,’ he admitted last week to The Southern Star. ‘The executive asked me to run and three days later, it was announced that I would not be running.’
He said the ‘word’ had earlier gone out from Fine Gael headquarters that ‘the grassroots in Cork South West did not want Noel O’Donovan running.’
That rankled so much with the majority of party members, who felt it was completely untrue, that the petition was organised, he said.
‘It was not about negatively impacting any candidate, it was about adding me to the ticket,’ he said.
But all of that is now water under the bridge for the 35-year-old store manager and he says that rifts have been healed ‘to a degree’, though the party still needs to ‘earn the trust of the people again’.
He sees the upcoming elections – both local and general – as a good time to continue the healing. ‘These are the people’s seats and it’s up to the people to decide,’ he said.
Noel with former Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe recently.
The party has a total of seven candidates across West Cork for the local elections in June, and he believes the strategy is much better this time. In the Skibbereen area, it has been carved up between himself – on the Clonakilty side – and schoolteacher Brendan McCarthy in Skibbereen.
There was no convention after Jim Daly left politics and Noel has been assured that for the upcoming general election, that mistake won’t be repeated.
A lot of candidates would have walked away after the party’s very public dirty laundry-washing last time around, but Noel insists politics is his chosen path.
‘For now I want to focus on the local elections,’ he said. ‘I think the Council needs to get back to basics and deal with roads, infrastructure – even footpaths, lighting. We need to plan for the future – like the waste water treatment plant in Dunmanway, a bypass in Clonakilty, and our schools, which are full to capacity.’
He says one of the first things he would like to do if elected is get the area engineers and local community groups around a table and ask them if they think the system is working.
He also wants to get more meetings with ‘key decision makers’ in the likes of Uisce Éireann and other service providers, to ‘take politics out of matters’ and try and find solutions to issues, from Shannonvale, to the N71, and more.
He is also passionate about spreading the word about the beauty and potential of West Cork as a tourism destination, and is involved in a business which brings visitors to local enterprises in the region.
Some may think the smiling former garda won’t have the stomach to endure the slings and arrows of what has become an increasingly tough career choice.
But having already successfully navigated several years in the gardaí, including witnessing the aftermath of a horrific car crash in his first days in the job (‘When you arrive at a scene, and there is total silence, you know it’s bad’), he believes he is ready to take on any challenge that politics throws at him now.
‘I say to people on the doorsteps, ask me to do something for you and I will do my best. And if I don’t do what you’ve asked, then don’t vote for me.’
