In the most momentous week of his political career, as he resigned from the Fianna Fáil party and declared his independent candidature for the forthcoming General Election, poll-topping local councillor Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran has gone to ground and become uncontactable.
“It’s an odd one that. I’m hearing it from all the journos,” said his former party colleague Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, after hearing how Cllr Moran had gone incommunicado since his surprise announcement on Tuesday.
“I thought he’d capitalize on his 15 minutes. Maybe he wants to deal with it only through press releases.” Yesterday (Thursday ), Cllr O’Rourke actually tweeted to ask people stop asking him where Boxer was.
Earlier this week the popular local councillor, who sits on both the county and town councils, issued a press release in which he declared his resignation from Fianna Fáil “with immediate effect”.
“This is a decision I have not made lightly and reflects a wider discontent with the performance of the party in Government and the current mood of despair within the consituency,” he said.
“I have worked tirelessly as a local representative since 1999 and am acutely conscious of the serious concerns and problems facing people on the ground. Regretfully, the party does not appear to realise the extent of the fear and pain experienced by ordinary families in these extraordinary times...For this reason I feel I can best serve my constituents in the future as an independent councillor,” the press release concluded.
In January 2006, Boxer was narrowly defeated by Mary O’Rourke 48-39 in a special selection convention in the Bloomfield House Hotel in Mullingar as Fianna Fáil sought its third constituency candidate for the 2007 poll to run alongside the then sitting TDs of Donie Cassidy and Peter Kelly.
Fellow Athlone candidates in the next election - Deputy Mary O’Rourke and Senator Nicky McFadden - both respected his decision.
“I’m sad he’s left Fianna Fáil. He’s a good councillor, but it’s not a huge surprise,” said Deputy O’Rourke.
However, former party and town council colleague, Cllr Aengus O’Rourke was a lot less restrained.
“It’s very regrettable...I mean now is the time to rebuild and work for the party, particularly as I’m of the same generation as Kevin and feel it is now our responsibility as the young generation to rebuild.
“It’s regretable that he isn’t leaving because of any one thing - he isn’t leaving because of the budget, or because of the four-year plan, or because of the IMF. It seems he’s leaving because Boxer wants to be a TD.
“For him to turn to me the other night [at the town council budget meeting] and shrug his shoulders and tell me he’s resigning [from the party] was a great shame.
“What it does, is it puts at risk Athlone’s chance of returning a TD to the next Dáil. It’s a huge risk. If Athlone is left for the next five years without representation, it would be devastating for the town.
“Now there’s four reasonably strong names fishing for votes in Athlone - O’Rourke, McFadden, Hogan, and Moran - and this [Boxer’s decision] may dilute the Athlone vote sufficiently for the Mullingar candidates to leave us out in the cold again.
“I’m genuinely concerned there’s too many big fish in a small pool.
