Tipperary can reflect on its choice of Leadership

Ahead of our 2016 election campaign launch on February 11th, I am asking voters in Tipperary to reflect on the type of leadership that they want in the new and unified county.

The re-unification of the county offers an exciting opportunity for Tipperary to make a fresh start. Tipperary should take up once again the position of leadership in Irish political and cultural life – to match its performance on the sports field.

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Irish voters tend to select their representatives to their national parliament on the basis of personal favours. The neglects any considerations of where the country is going, and is what has made our politics such a failure over  the last 15 years.

Regretably, Tipperary has come to embody this trend over the last few years, against the county’s own better tradition of leadership in Ireland. You only have to think of Tipperary’s central role in the national movement – when Ernie O’Malley, Sean Treacy and Dinny Lacy were on the run during the War of Independence, it was the homes of Tipperary that kept them going – the people in those safe houses, were the backbone of the Irish independence movement. At great personal risk, they put themselves on the line for the long term future of their country.

Tipperary has also been central to other organisations for example  the GAA, the pioneering community self-help group Muintir na Tíre, among others.

I am asking Tipperary to take up its attitude of leadership again, to look at where they want the state to go rather than what they can extract from the state.

I am delighted that Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan will formally launch our campaign at the Excel Centre in Tipperary at 7.30pm on Thursday 11th February. All are welcome. Eamon’s own own forebears hail from the Glen of Aherlow.

“I am delighted that Tipperary is putting forward such a strong local candidate. There is a space for a strong rural Green voice which can positively influence issues of planning and the rural economy. I think the electorate will be interested in Gearoid’s views on local energy and other matters”

Further details of Tipperary Green campaign launch and policies are available on their facebook page www.facebook.com/TipperaryGreens and campaign blogwww.gfitzgibbon.wordpress.com  Tipperary Greens are not funded from the public purse. Their crowdfunding campaign is available on www.gofundme.com/greeningtipp  or by calling 0838109522.