Council to make history with first female chair

LOCAL authority history looks set to be made in the chambers of Meath County Council on Monday next when the first ever woman cathaoirleach of the council is elected. Fianna Fail councillor Liz McCormack from Athboy is expected to be elected chairperson of the county council at its annual meeting in Navan, succeeding her party colleague, Cllr Nick Killian from Ratoath. Fianna Fail entered into a pact with Independent members Brian Fitzgerald, Jimmy Cudden and Dominic Hannigan, following the last local elections, with Senator Hannigan"s replacement, Labour Cllr Eoin Holmes, likely to continue to honour the agreement. It will be an all-female council hierarchy, with Fine Gael Navan area member Jenny D"Arcy set to become vice-chair. Cllr McCormack will be the last cathaoirleach of the council prior to next summer"s local elections. The Athboy councillor has been a public representative since 1999, when she held retiring Cllr Sib Rooney"s seat in the Kells Electoral Area. The outgoing chair of the Kells area council, she will be the first chair of the county council from that electoral division since Deputy Johnny Brady in 1995. When elected in 1997, she became the first representative from the town of Athboy since the late Pat Andrews, chairman in 1978 and 1983. She was the first woman elected to the council in 1997, and again in 2004. It was Cllr McCormack"s involvement in many local groups and organisations in the town that saw her earn the support of the Athboy electorate, involvement that she maintained after her election in such projects as the major undertaking at the Cow Park as chairperson of Athboy Social Needs and Recreation Ltd, the Athboy Childcare project, infrastructural projects around the town, and as a member of the VEC, was pro-active in the successful campaign to secure a new community school for the town. She is an active member of Athboy Tidy Towns whose most recent initiative, a new stone facing on the walls of St James"s Cemetery, was completed in time for last Sunday evening"s cemetery devotions. Cllr McCormack has also in recent years been involved in the setting up of the No Name Club, a youth club in the town. With such a close involvement with community organisations, Cllr McCormack is expected to make interaction with community groups across the county and the council a priority during her year in office. In getting elected to Meath County Council, she was following on a family tradition, as her grand-uncle, Pat Vaughan, of nearby Addinstown, on the Westmeath border, was a member of the Westmeath County Council in the 1930s. That council was dissolved for not striking a rate - Cllr McCormack will be hoping for a more successful term!