’A fantastic town’: Out and about in Abbeyfeale with Cllr Liam Galvin

FINE Gael councillor Liam Galvin is a man after my own heart. He’s a straight-talking politician that doesn’t mince his words. In fairness, you’re unlikely to ever find Cllr Galvin sitting on the fence, especially when it comes to his role as a local representative. I met the candid alderman, recently elected Cathaoirleach of Newcastle West […]

FINE Gael councillor Liam Galvin is a man after my own heart. He’s a straight-talking politician that doesn’t mince his words. In fairness, you’re unlikely to ever find Cllr Galvin sitting on the fence, especially when it comes to his role as a local representative.

I met the candid alderman, recently elected Cathaoirleach of Newcastle West Municipal District, out in his native parish of Abbeyfeale to speak to him about some of the current issues.

First stop on our jaunt around the historic market town is the site of the former Bank of Ireland in The Square, where there are plans afoot for a 35-bed tourist hostel. Cllr Galvin tells me that he sees an opportunity here for a community crèche to be included in the proposed development, which he maintains is badly needed.

“I have a concern about it, and I’ll be very honest about it, and I’ll tell you why. Will a hostel be successful there?” he asked.

“We have €500,000 spent on that building after the Ukrainians, who we welcomed with open arms, have left. They were the nicest people you could meet. Now that they have left, we want to remodel that building for a hostel.

“That bank was bought by the Council to house refugees with a view of giving it back to the community. A hostel was one of the recommendations for it. Myself, personally, I had two ideas for it, I wanted to either relocate the old library up to the bank, where children could get in and out of cars safely. The second idea, what I wanted was a community crèche, and Alan, we need a community crèche in this town,” Cllr Galvin said.

According to the former Mayor of Limerick, Abbeyfeale does not have adequate crèche facilities to meet the demands of the town’s growing population. This, he says, is leaving families in a “terrible predicament”.

“This is what is recommended. Will it work? I don’t know. I have concerns about it. The thinking is that this proposed project will encourage schools to come to town and stay in the town overnight when they are visiting the Greenway. That’s all fine if you have a tourist town like Killarney, but that’s not what you see here. Of course, it’s welcome in the town, any project is welcome, but if I had my choice, my priority would be a community crèche because the town needs it. We’ve nothing to cater for the working family.”

Galvin exudes passion in every interaction. It is clear when you watch him bellowing at members of the executive in the Council chamber over the issues that are important to those who voted for him. It’s also blatantly manifest when he talks sport, politics, or current affairs. It is most obvious of all though when this hardworking farmer and family man talks about Abbeyfeale and his electoral municipality of West Limerick.

Cllr Galvin stops on the main street to talk to one local man with great gusto about Limerick’s All-Ireland winning performance this summer. He is a larger than life character brimming over with joie de vivre, and is in clear demand as we make our way up the town.

His verve surely stood to him on that famous day he led Fr Casey’s GAA Club to their historic Senior County Championship title in 2000. Here’s a man who’s had his Ready Brek, as he positively lights up when he talks about this most welcoming of burgs in the foothills of the Mullaghareirk Mountains that he calls home.

“We’re trying to encourage people back up into the town, and we’re told it needs cheap and cheerful accommodation where they can stay for the night and socialise around the town. In an ideal world, it sounds perfect, but I’m not convinced, and I do want to wish the hostel well if it does succeed. I’ll put my hand up if it does,” he vows.

Cllr Galvin is keen to show off Abbeyfeale’s new car park during our field trip, which he believes “is going to be a gamechanger for the town”.

On-street parking, he claims, has always been an issue, adding to the notorious congestion through this bustling gateway to North Kerry.

“You can’t get out of a car here, it’s not safe with all the traffic passing by. The wing mirror is going to be carried off or you will,” he suggests.

Liam’s family is steeped in Fine Gael and his late father Jimmy was a party activist for many years, playing a leading role in numerous successful election campaigns. The animated councillor himself worked at Kostal for some years while also seeing the farm move with the times and changing focus from dairy to beef. He’s on the clock as we stroll around Abbeyfeale as he’s still got cattle to dose when he’s free of me.

As we make our way up the street to admire the new car park, Galvin is keen to praise the people who make the town what it is.

“We have a fantastic town. We have great volunteers, for example we have the Tidy Towns committee, we have the graveyard committee, we have the Community Council committee, we have the town park committee, and we have the church committee. We have so many extraordinary volunteers,” he says.

“People are very proud of their town. When you see them out there in the morning and they’re cleaning voluntarily, and you see people taking young lads to training sessions, and people down in the graveyard for two hours once a week, they’re incredible.”

You better believe Cllr Galvin means every word he says too, and with that we reach the new car park, which he can barely contain his excitement over.

“It’s going to be huge for the town. That there is a huge positive step. There’s 21 car spaces and two disability bays here, but not only that, we’re after connecting the existing carpark. To me, this is a gamechanger and it’s going to alleviate the problems of blocking the street,” he enthused.

Before I let him get back to dosing his cattle, I ask Cllr Galvin if he has spoken to Mayor John Moran about some of the further works and developments on his wish list for Abbeyfeale.

“People would be giving out about him and different ideas, but I find him a very reasonable man when you sit down to talk to him one to one. He is listening and hopefully together we’ll get more down,” he shares.

“You have to give yourself a high five now and again, and you have to give yourself a kick in the backside. I think the Council needs a kick in the backside for the way the Lidl application was handled in the town. I have called on the Mayor and the Council to get the land rezoned now to facilitate a Lidl, and, to be fair to the Mayor, he’s been very open to the progress we’re making in the town.”