Newry is said to have given New York its two youngest Mayors and now the district will be represented by its youngest ever civic leader. Fews Councillor Daire Hughes was unveiled as Newry and Mourne’s last Mayor ahead of the completion of the merger with Down District Council in April 2015 at Monday night’s Council AGM. At the meeting Mournes Councillor Brian Quinn (SDLP) was unveiled as the new deputy Mayor. As both Mayor Hughes and deputy Mayor Quinn were co-opted onto Council (2014 and 2012 respectively this means that that for the first time neither of the two top posts have been filled by councillors who were elected by the public. In 1913 John Purroy Mitchel a grandson of Newry political icon John Mitchel won the race to become the 95th Mayor of New York at the tender age of 34. A quarter of a century prior to this Hugh J Grant who once owned a home in Sugar Island took the chains of office aged just 31. Now at the age of 24 Sinn Fein Councillor Hughes has taken the chains of office and despite the fact that powers will transfer to the new Newry Mourne and Down super-Council during his term the new First Citizen has said the post retains significant importance. “If anything it is as important,” he told the Reporter. “Given that it is the last year Newry and Mourne the Mayoralty is vital to leave a fresh taste in people’s mind when they look back on this Council. It is something I am looking forward to and relishing. It is potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity so it is not something you shirk away from or do with half tour potential – you do what you can, you go to what you can and you engage with who you can.” Originally from the Meadow area of Newry the new Mayor now lives in Cloghogue. A former student of St Patrick’s Primary School and St Colman’s College he studied History and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast. In January he was co-opted onto Newry and Mourne Council before running for election to the super-Council in May. However a rare glitch in Sinn Fein’s vote management system saw party colleague Terry Hearty returned with hundreds of surplus first preference votes in the Slieve Gullion electoral area ultimately cost Cllr Hughes a seat in the new administration. Despite this disappointment has said that he is in politics for the long haul and his positioning as Mayor is not a ruse designed to raise his profile ahead of future co-option to the super-Council. “There is no grand scheme at play here,” he said. “Yes I fell short for the new Council structures but people point out to me I am still young and I am not going anywhere. The Councillors sitting there are there on the back of the party’s strength and their own ability. There is no one there stepping aside to make way for me.” A number of councils sitting on both the existing Newry and Mourne Council and the new super-Council have already raised concerns relating to schedule clashes in their new diaries as such, Mayor Hughes believes it could be beneficial that his sole focus will be on Newry and Mourne. “You don’t want the last civic position in this Council to be done half as well as it could have been for the want of private commitments,” he said. “It does free up the Councillors elected to the new super-Council to really get a hold of their brief prior to going into the new Council structures.” During his term in office Mayor Hughes will have the opportunity to launch and officially open a number of projects – beginning with the completion of the new £2.4m Canal Bank Public Realm Scheme in early July. “It is a fantastic project and it is sad that there as been a bit of negativity about it but realistically when it is finished people will enjoy it,” he said. “It will open up a whole area of Newry that until now has been sidetracked with roads and busy junctions where as now you will be able to stroll through the centre of the town along the canal. There is development all across the district.
Newry Reporter
11th June 2014
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