The monthly meeting of Mayo County Council was adjourned this week, as a mark of respect to two of the elected members of the council whose parents died recently. Glowing tributes were paid to both Mr Michael Mulherin, father of Ballina-based Councillor Michelle Mulherin and Angela O’Brien, mother of south-Mayo Cllr Patsy O’Brien.
Putting forward the motion Fine Gael chief whip Paddy McGuinness said that it was in keeping with the tradition of the council to adjourn the meeting and pay tribute to those who have recently passed.
Cllr Cyril Burke led the tributes to the late Mrs O’Brien, saying that she was “a great woman and mother who dedicated her life to her family and she had a great love of cooking, music and card playing and that her death came as great shock to her family after a short illness. And if anyone was in doubt of the regard she was held in by friends and family they only had to look at the large turnout at her funeral.”
Cllr Damien Ryan, paying tribute to Mrs O’Brien, told a story of how during the last local election campaign agents of his were canvassing in the south Mayo area and arrived at Mrs O’Brien’s door not knowing whose house it was. But she received them with courtesy but told them that she couldn’t possibly give him a number one but might give him a number two on the ballot.
The tributes to Mr Michael Mulherin were led by Cllr Eddie Staunton who told the meeting that he knew Michael Mulherin for a long time and he was a true gentleman. “He followed in his father’s footsteps, who set up the first taxi business in Ballina, and for 35 years he as a transport operator for the Western Health Board and the HSE ferried the sick and injured in and out of hospital from all over north Mayo, to hospitals in Mayo and further afield to places such as Galway and Dublin. He would go out of his way to help every person he came across and was one of the most helpful people you could meet.”
Tributes to both of the deceased were paid by numerous members of the council from both sides of the house. Cllr O’Brien thanked the members for their support at a very difficult time for him and his family, while Cllr Mulherin thanked everybody for their goodwill and messages of support to her family. County manager Des Mahon extended his sympathies to both families on behalf of himself and the staff of the council, while Cathaoirleach Joe Mellett also joined in expressing his sympathies and also expressed sympathy to the families of the late JJ O’Hara, Foxford, Mr Gerry Moore, Ballina, who was a former councillor himself and to the late Mons Tommy Shannon from Ballinrobe.
