“If I have to travel three hours home in the evening I don’t mind as long as I get home,” explains Castlebar Mayor Kevin Guthrie, who is pulled over on the road somewhere between Clara, Co Offaly and Castlebar on a Tuesday evening as he speaks to the Mayo Advertiser. Midway through his term as the first citizen of Castlebar the Fine Gael town councillor is enjoying holding the chain of office for the first time, even if it does mean when he finally makes that three-hour trip after work he might not see his home for too long before he’s out the door again on official duty.
“Being the mayor of the town where I was born and reared is an amazing thing and you can’t but enjoy the honour that goes with it.” Guthrie will end his first term on the council with the mayoral chain and he is gearing up for the re-election campaign next year already. “I gave a commitment to the party a while ago that I will run again next year, I don’t think it would have been fair to the party if I didn’t go for a second term. It will be up to the people of Castlebar come next June if I get back on to the council. I’m taking nothing for granted, all I can do is work my hardest for the people in the town and do all I can for them. I would hope that I served them well this past four and half years and that they want me to represent them again.”
Being a local politician is something that Guthrie relishes and being able to make even the smallest difference in people’s lives is what keeps him going, despite his hectic working life. “That’s what I really enjoy about this job, being able to help people even if it’s the smallest little thing that I can get done for them. Helping people and giving them a voice is why I got involved in the first place and I hope that the people of Castlebar are happy with what I have done for them.”
Emigration
The country is currently getting to grips with the economic downturn and Guthrie is candid about his own previous experiences of leaving Ireland to find work. “I myself had to go to England to find work previously. I was over there for 13 years before I came back. And unfortunately it may become a reality again very soon for a lot of people. People have to work, they want to work and will go where the jobs are.”
The Fine Gael councillor went on to explain that even he may not be exempt from any potential exodus. “I want to work and keep working, it might come to the stage where I have to go away again to work. I don’t want to
stop working just yet, so we have to see where the jobs are if it comes to that. It’s ok for me, I’ve been away and lived the life before and my family are reared so I can do it, but there are plenty people who have a house and young family who might have to up and leave and that’s something terrible that no one wants to see. I try to get home every night, because, well, that’s your home, but if you have to head off and leave the country you don’t have that option.”
Getting things done in the town
While he has enjoyed the last four years representing the people of Castlebar Kevin wishes a couple of things could have happened over the course of his term. “I always said that I would like to see the lakeside walk started and get some of it open. One of the things that has disappointed me, though, has been how slow at times the wheels take to get into motion from a project being approved to men getting on the ground and it starting. That’s something that I would like to see improve over the next few years.”
Guthrie is keenly aware that the business community in the town need to work together to make sure that Castlebar remains as a retail capital in the west. “I was at the Castlebar Chamber of Commerce 2020 Vision launch last week, it’s a very ambitious plan and something that everyone has to work towards. Everyone has to work together, you can’t have the shopkeepers in one area going off on their own, they all have to work together for the betterment of the town as a whole.”
