CORK REACTION:THE RETURN of the Fianna Fáil leadership to Cork for the first time in just over three decades was warmly welcomed in the southern capital yesterday.
The wife of the late Cork Fianna Fáil and later Progressive Democrats TD Pearse Wyse said she was thrilled to see the leadership come back to Cork, “after Jack [Lynch]”.
“Micheál has a very hard job ahead of him but he will manage, no bother,” Theresa Wyse said.
A neighbour of the new Fianna Fáil leader, Ms Wyse is also a long-time family friend. “The party needs to change now, it needs to be more transparent and accountable to the people,” she said.
Local publican John Barrett, proprietor of the Orchard Bar in Ballinlough, where Mr Martin has held weekly clinics for the past 20 years, said: “We are absolutely thrilled. Micheál is fantastic for the area, so many people have high praise for him and he is such an approachable man.
“He may have his work cut out for him but we hope to see him become taoiseach one day,” Mr Barrett said.
Fianna Fáil councillors in Cork welcomed Micheál Martin’s election to the leadership and looked forward to a rejuvenated party.
“It’s a good day for Fianna Fáil and for Ireland. This is a recognition of the potential that’s there, he has worked hard and he is certainly going to give us a bounce in the polls,” Cork South East councillor Terry Shannon said.
Mr Martin was remembered by a former teacher at Coláiste Criost Rí in Cork yesterday as a bright student with lots of conviction.
He showed signs of ambition at an early age and had crossed paths with fellow leadership contester Mary Hanafin long before either entered politics, on childhood trips to the Gaeltacht, former teacher Kevin Cummins recalled.
“He was always the first on the floor at the céilís and we used liaise with a couple of girls’ schools in Tipperary at the time and strangely enough, one of the girls that would have been there in Kerry with Micheál at the time was Mary Hanafin.”