Profile: High political achiever whose reputation now lies in ruins

It was a sorry day for former lord mayor of Cork John Murray (83), a man who relished his time as Leeside’s first citizen 20 years ago.

A dapper dresser, even throughout his trial where he showed up each day wearing a new tie and matching handkerchief in his suit breast pocket, Murray was accused of vanity at one stage by the complainant’s father.

The father said that when confronted about the abuse, Murray acknowledged he was vain and said how “women found him irresistible”.

Becoming lord mayor had been the high achievement of his career.

“I will miss the position. I will miss the prestige of it . . . it was certainly a beautiful year,” he said in 1994 looking back on his year in office.

Born on August 6th, 1930, in the working-class community of Cork’s Middle Parish, Murray’s road to Cork City Hall followed a somewhat colourful route as, like many people of his generation, he had taken the emigrant boat to London at the age of 18.

He got a job working as a checker at Brigg’s body car plant in Dagenham where he stayed for 10 years. It was in London that he met his Irish-born wife, Peggy, with whom he had five children, a son and four daughters.

It was also in London where he began singing in working men’s clubs before 600 or 700 drunken patrons that he developed the public confidence that would later stand him in good stead in Cork politics.

Steeped in the Labour Party, Murray ran in the 1979 local elections, missing out on a seat in the south central ward by 40 votes. However he was elected in 1985 and held the seat for two terms, narrowly losing out in 1999 to future Green Party TD Dan Boyle.

By then, Murray, who had set up his own taxi business in 1987, had enjoyed the highest honour in Leeside politics when he was elected lord mayor of Cork in 1993 under a pact between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour.

“I am going to be down to earth and ally myself to the ordinary working-class people, regardless what people think of me. The lord mayoralty will not change John Murray,” he said as he pledged to tackle a housing crisis where people were “living in rat-infested hovels”.

While some saw arrogance, others noted assertiveness, but the jury believed his accuser, not him – bringing a certain irony to his advice to his successor in City Hall.

“Be yourself, do not try to follow anyone else because if you do, people will not be long catching on to you.”