*Dr Tom Nolan (FG). Photograph: Joe Buckley.
DR TOM NOLAN (FG) said he was “added in and left without life support” by Fine Gael party headquarters throughout his election campaign.
Following an initial decision by Joe Cooney TD (FG) not to contest the General Election, Fine Gael made approaches to Nolan who agreed to run but less than ten hours after his addition to the ballot paper it emerged that Cooney had changed his mind and as such created a completely new dynamic with the party running three and not two candidates.
The Clare Echo understands that promises were also made to Dr Nolan that Fine Gael would organise for someone to direct and run his social media campaign for the General Election but this didn’t come to pass and his niece Ettie Chambers had to fill the void.
When both instances were put to Tom that he was let down by Fine Gael, he stated, “I was added in, and then I was left without life support, basically. So, there’s something strange going on. I’m walking out of here knowing full well that I made the decision to go forward into this situation, and saw it as an opportunity to get something done that I’ve wanted to get done for some time so I have nothing but good feelings coming away from this. Not only have I given it my best shot, all my team gave it their best shot. we had a wonderful cohesive unit, and we all feel the same way. We gave it our best shot, and after that, frankly, the result was not ideal but it doesn’t matter, the important thing is to give it your best shot”.
He polled 2,139 first preference votes and was eliminated on the ninth count. Reflecting on his campaign, the Kilkee man commented, “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and one will do me, that’s it. I can honestly say I didn’t know one day from the other over the last eigtheen days from the day we got our promotional literature, and started out. Suddenly being thrown in the line from my quiet life was an acute learning curve and then I got excited about it and then I got energy for it, then I felt I could make a difference and do something for the health services. We gave it everything we had, we gave it our absolute best, all of us and I haven’t formally done this but with a small, very effective tight team, I have to thank Madeline Taylor Quinn, Paddy Collins, my nieces and nephews, particularly Ettie Chambers and then a lot of people who fed us while we were out and kept the house warm and different things like that, mundane stuff like that”.
A higher first preference vote had been anticipated for the Kilrush GP. “Honestly, I expected it would be higher. I don’t know why I thought it would be higher, but, when you think about it, at the end of the day, I was last in, I had a short campaign, and other people had committed their votes to other people I was canvassing and people had already committed their votes, and it’s difficult to get votes from people in in that situation. People don’t want to be liars, when they say they give somebody their vote so it was difficult to get votes from people. When you put it in that context and that there seems to a bit of a pushback against Fine Gael in this election, I should be happy enough with getting over 2,000 votes in a two to three week period, I’d like to think they were really good votes, they were really special votes, and I have to thank those people. For whatever reason, they gave me the vote that they did give it, and I’m sorry I couldn’t deliver for them”.
Prior to polling day, Dr Nolan who had been a member of the Ennis Hospital Action Group said the election bid was his last roll of the dice to try restore services to Ennis Hospital following its downgrading in 2009. “I reinvigorated myself way back in 2011 just before that election when I presented something very similar to what I presented a few nights ago, whenever it was. That is, say, a hospital for Claire, that type of model. There’s been a few tweaks on that, but you know what? It’s galling to think that that was thirteen years ago and, as the man says, worse, we’ve improved. It’s a huge, burden, I would think, now on the, four people elected here today to actually, once and for all, finish the job of providing acute services. I would instance the model I’ve suggested, this blueprint for, the future reorganisation of Clare Health Services even on a minor level, that they try to follow that model”.
When he was joined on a Kilrush canvass by outgoing Taoiseach, Simon Harris (FG) he got a sense that the Wicklow man had regrets for not improving services when he was Minister for Health. “He understood when I was talking to him about A&E. I was talking about an A&E appropriate to Clare, he didn’t say yes we’ll do that, he didn’t say that, but he understood that I was talking about an appropriate an A&E appropriate for Clare. That’s as far as it went. He did not commit, I have to say that but I got the sense from him that he’s embarrassed by having been in Health that he perhaps didn’t do more at that time. That was my sense of his demeanour around it”.
