A five-year political jigsaw is expected to be completed this Wednesday morning when the final piece is slotted into place and a new Mayor of Killarney takes up office.
Under the terms of a pact hammered out between four of the seven councillors following the last local elections in 2019, Cllr Niall Kelleher (Fianna Fáil) is due to take the hotseat in succession to Cllr Brendan Cronin (Independent) at the Killarney Municipal District Council meeting in the town hall.
The pact – not in any way unusual or unprecedented in local politics – was agreed between Cllrs Kelleher and Cronin, Cllr Marie Moloney (Labour) and Michael Gleeson (Kerry Independent Alliance) five years ago.
It resulted in them all serving a 12-month term as mayor and the agreement provided for the final year to be shared between Cllr Cronin and Cllr Kelleher.
Michael Gleeson has since retired from the council but his nephew, Cllr John O’Donoghue, who was co-opted to the seat in June 2021, has remained loyal to the agreement signed by his uncle.
The agreement effectively blocked the opportunity for Independents Cllrs Maura Healy-Rae, Cllr Niall O’Callaghan and Donal Grady – the latter has since retired and been replaced by his son Martin – to hold the chain of office during the five-year term which draws to a close before the local elections in June.
Cllr Kelleher will be very familiar with the role expected of the mayor as he held the position previously in 2018 and 2022 and he was Mayor of Kerry in 2019, although his term in office on that occasion was badly hampered by the pandemic.
KillarneyToday.com: Advertise where it will be seen. Call 087-2229761 or email news@killarneytoday.com
