THE Comhairle Ceantair
pointed out that Seanator Keaveney has not attended
the last four meetings of Inishowen Comhairle
Ceantair. The Comhairle Ceantair further stated that
this includes Senator Keaveney's non attendance at
two special meetings of the Comhairle Ceantair in
the last two weeks where the sole agenda item was
the discussion of General Election preparations, nor
did she make contact with the Comhairle Ceantair to
send apologies.
The second of these Special Comhairle Ceantair
meetings took place on Sunday night last (23rd
January) and was an emergency meeting called at
twenty four hour notice to make preparations for the
General Election campaign following the resignation
of Party Leader Brian Cowen on Saturday afternoon.
Every effort was made to contact Party members by
telephone and the meeting was one of the best
attended in many years. Senator Keaveney received a
telephone call and message to inform her of this
meeting and when she did not respond, contact was
made with close family members to ensure
notification was forwarded to her.
At this meeting, a unanimous decision was taken by
Inishowen Party members to set a Convention date for
this Thursday night in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel,
Buncrana at 8pm to select a candidate to contest the
election on behalf of Inishowen Fianna Fáil. All
members were unanimous and united at the meeting
that Inishowen must have its own candidate and that
any proposal by party headquarters for a one
candidate strategy for Donegal North East would not
be acceptable to Inishowen.
Notification of the Convention was forwarded to
Senator Keaveney by email and telephone first thing
on Monday morning. The Comhairle Ceantair is
disappointed that the only communication from
Senator Keaveney has been through a Highland Radio
interview in which she said she would not be
attending the Convention. The Comhairle Ceantair
also note that in her interview she confirmed
receipt of a telephone message on Saturday night in
relation to Sunday’s emergency meeting and that she
confirmed receipt of notification on Monday morning
of the setting of a Convention date for this
Thursday night. The Comhairle Ceantair would also
like to outline that since Senator Keaveney's first
election to the Dail 15 years ago, the Fianna Fail
organisation in Inishowen has been steadfastly
supportive of her.
The Inishowen Fianna Fáil Organisation's sole
objective is to ensure that Inishowen has a Fianna
Fáil General Election candidate and the election of
this candidate to give strong representation for the
peninsula in Dail Eireann. The Inishowen
organisation is standing resolutely against any
attempt at national level to impose a one-candidate
strategy on Donegal North East. The Convention will
proceed as planned on Thursday night (Jan 27th) at
8pm in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel and the Comhairle
Ceantair is confident of a very strong turn out of
supporters in support of this objective. |
