Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, and Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, accompanied Ó Cuív and his wife Áine at the top table, alongside senior government officials who worked with the Fianna Fáíl politician across six separate ministries, and members of Galway Fianna Fáil.
Dara Calleary, who succeeded Ó Cuív as Fianna Fáil deputy leader in 2018, was present, as was the party’s chief whip, Mary Butler TD.
Dep Butler told the Advertiser she was there because Ó Cuív had driven down from Galway and canvassed Comeragh at her first attempt to get on to Waterford County Council in 2014. Similar stories were repeated by serving and former councillors from all across the country who attended the Salthill dinner.
In a short speech thanking numerous serving and former Fianna Fáil politicians for turning up, Ó Cuív made a point of also welcoming Fine Gael Senator Seán Kyne, and Sinn Féin’s Galway West poll-topper Mairéad Farrell TD, accompanied by her party colleague, Mark Lohan.
“I do miss the meeting-the-public part of politics, and it’s great to see old colleagues,” said O Cuív. “I miss the comradeship of Leinster House.”
He warned serving TDs present, however, that there was a job of work to be done, and called for a national water scheme to be established akin to the broadband schemes, and rural electrification.
Ó’Cuív praised the taoisigh he served under, particularly the work of Ahern and Albert Reynolds in the Peace Process. In retirement, he intends to continue his outreach work with political prisoners.
“If you want peace, you must talk to those who are capable of disrupting that peace,” he said.
