*Liam Wiley, Liam Hayes and Cllr Pat Hayes lift Timmy Dooley into the air. Photograph: Joe Buckley
POLL-TOPPER, Timmy Dooley TD (FF) bounced back with a bang to claim his place as one of the county’s four TDs in the 34th Dáil.
Not since the late Brendan Daly (FF) in 1977 when he recorded 11,933 first preference votes has there been a return higher than the figure of 11,313 amassed by Timmy in a General Election in Clare.
Topping the poll is nothing new to the Mountshannon native who was previously first over the line in 2007 and 2016 but the success was made more special considering he won back the seat that he lost in February 2020.
That defeat made Dooley savour his latest success. “I was pleased to get elected. Having been through 2020 and losing a seat, anything that gets you back is good. It’s been a good campaign, very pleased for Fianna Fáil that we managed the strategy better this time, that the two of us got elected, we were so close the last time, so we kind of learned our lessons in terms of our canvass strategy, it worked out this time and it worked because the people came out and backed the three of us. Our teams worked hard, we worked well together, we covered the areas. The weather helped us a little bit this time too. We’ve been out sort of more direct campaigning since early September, and the weather was kind, so it allowed us to get to more places and meet more people”.
With such a visible campaign that included massive signs placed around the county, the scaffolding even compared as akin to the “Eiffel Tower” by Mayor of Clare, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) at a meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District. Dooley’s campaign manager, Martin O’Loghlen told The Clare Echo, “this was probably the biggest effort to date in the 5 General Elections he has contested, we canvassed every town and village in Clare but more importantly the rural areas which most candidates never got to”.
Their campaign received a renewed focus with the addition of Joe Cooney (FG) into the race at the beginning of November, Timmy said. “When Joe Cooney came into the frame pretty late, right up to that I was getting worried because up to that people were saying ‘Michael McNamara is gone, you’ve a dead you have a safe run, you’re home and hosed again’, and I was worried about that but I have to say when Joe Cooney came into it, I had real cause for concern because I know Joe and I know how he does his business, and I know how well liked he is, and I’m also conscious that a first time candidate gets a massive injection of energy because people who were never involved in campaigns get involved, and that develops a momentum, and I thought that would that could have been detrimental our sort of effort. Coupled with that, lots more people joined in in the campaign. We started getting calls from people who, you know, would have been with us in the past and were there, but maybe hadn’t come out canvassing but now that the date was clear that, you know so at the end of that week that Joe put himself forward, the election was called and right from the time that his election was called, we started getting calls from all the people who have been out in the past”.
According to Timmy, the reception on the doors was positive for the work done by Micheál Martin (FF) and their coalition partners Fine Gael. “Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have worked well in Government, so from my party’s perspective, the stewardship and leadership of Micheál Martin has been really helpful, we got lots of people on the doors who reflected positively about his time as Taoiseach, about his statesmanship, about his diplomatic skills on some of the international and worldwide issues, particularly his knowledge and understanding and his forthrightness on the Middle East, his work from a national perspective in relation to the war in Ukraine, as well as dealing with issues domestically. He has put country ahead of sometimes the party in terms of just naked politics, and that doesn’t always play off immediately. It takes time for people to realise that maybe a tough decision was in the long-term better interest, and that has always been his strategy and I so that has helped both Cathal and I on this occasion”.
Both Timmy and then Junior Minister, Pat Breen (FG) lost their seats in February 2020, which was the lowpoint of his political career so bouncing back with a bang was very satisfying. “It really is tempered. I know people look at the numbers and they go, ‘you must be over the moon’. I was just pleased to be back and, for me, it was about recognising the last time. I didn’t lose heart when I got defeated because I felt with the 7,700 odd votes that it wasn’t it wasn’t a rejection of me as a politician or what I stood for or the work that I did because I saw many other politicians around the country with a lot less votes getting elected so I took some I took some sucker from that, that it was just a quirk of the system at the time and the strategy we deployed, but it was it’s nice when you continue to do what you what you what you did, and that people reflect positively on it and re-elect you”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo at the count centre, Dooley took time to remember many of his supporters that were no longer around. “Some of the difficult things this time were the people who weren’t with us that had been so good to us. Seamus Harrison, who’s just a neighbour of mine, his son was with us, he just died really suddenly back in the summer. Denis Hayes, who was the chairman of the Comhairle Ceanntair and the person who has probably the biggest inspiration to me since I was elected to the Seanad about getting elected to the Dáil, he passed away after COVID, my Dad (Joe) had also passed. Liam Walsh in Killaloe who was out with us for every election and died of a brain tumour, he wasn’t with us on this occasion, Paschal Lenihan from Sixmilebridge, Pat Reilly who passed away previously and wasn’t around for the last election and Mike Noonan two guys with me from the start, all relatively young men and many others whom I haven’t forgotten but I thought about those guys at some stage, one or other of them every day when we went to an area that we’d had a funny incident with one or other of them, and that that drove me on some of those days. Having been defeated and seeing the pain in their face was what I actually found harder the last time because I could only blame myself because of the strategy we developed but it was mine so I owned it, they were saying ‘we were out to get you elected not anybody else’, I felt I let them down by being part of a strategy which didn’t deliver for what they wanted”.
His family were by his side in The Falls and were once again flanking him on a more joyous outcome at Treacy’s West County Hotel. “Emer and the girls (Aoife and Aisling), my mother (Mary), my two sisters (Liz and Mary), my brother (Paddy), there’s an endless line of first and second cousins, there’s people who are distantly related, there are no relations and they put in the hard yards every day, every night through the campaign and they’re there throughout the year to lend a hand around anything that will be forever indebted to them but at least on this occasion now we’ve managed to turn it around and give them back a victory which they’re proud of. They worked night and day, but they did the last time too, and that’s why that was as I said to you, that was was the hardest to see the effort they put in and it not to be rewarded and, you know, me being able to take the blame a little bit for sort of devising a strategy that didn’t pay so but look, that’s from their perspective, that’s in the past now so it’s it’s onwards but, yeah, it is a great feeling to have so many people around you, that believe in you and want to want you to succeed, it’s hugely humbling, it’s up there”.
