A meteoric rise brings Dail success
ANNE Rabbitte felt it her bones about a month ago that this was going to be a successful election campaign. Instead of having to try and recruit canvassers, she was getting calls from volunteers who wanted to ‘go on the road’.
Across the sprawling East Galway constituency, she met that enthusiasm from Ballinastack in Corofin to the banks of the Shannon in Portumna and that ‘edge ‘ never left her campaign right up until Thursday evening last.
From the first day of the campaign, she felt Fianna Fáil had a message that the people wanted to hear. It wasn’t about the USC tax — the main issue raised from start to finish was fairness in society.
“Issues such as special needs children, elderly people being afraid in their own homes, families having a decent health service and emigration just kept coming up all the time. This election wasn’t about tax or the USC — it was about having a fairer society for everyone to live in,” said Anne Rabbitte.
There was also a strong feeling in her home town of Portumna on the need for a local TD to be elected and there was also a little bit of history ready to be made.
In the past, Fine Gael had Brigid Hogan O’Higgins as their woman representative in Dáil Eireann . . . now it was Fianna Fáil’s turn to strike.
“I know that I’ve made a bit of history today and that does mean a lot to me but also to the Fianna Fáil party and to their supporters on the ground. It is a very special day to be the first female Fianna Fáil TD in Galway East,” she said.
Geographically Anne Rabbitte had another string to her bow in this campaign that really stood to her. Her mother hailed from Ballynakilla in Abbeyknockmoy while her father came from Turloughmore.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.