Athlone councillors pay tribute to Heavin after loss of council seat
Members of the Athlone Moate Municipal District paid tribute to Louise Heavin this week, during their first monthly meeting since the Green Party representative lost her local authority seat.
Ms Heavin, a native of Mount Temple who lives in Athlone, was elected to the council in 2019 and served as the town's Mayor for the last year. She was the first Green Party representative ever to be elected in the Athlone area.
However, a bad local election for the party in Westmeath saw both her and her party colleague in Mullingar, Hazel Smyth, lose their council seats.
In the Athlone local electoral area, Ms Heavin received 364 first preferences votes, which was 54 more than the number of first preferences received by Cllr Paul Hogan.
However, she was ultimately eliminated on the ninth count, while Cllr Hogan received enough transfers to edge in front of Independent Tom Cleary and take the final Athlone seat on the tenth count.
During the 'votes of congratulations or sympathy' section at the outset the July meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, Cllr Aengus O'Rourke expressed his condolences to Ms Heavin on the loss of her seat.
"She had many good ideas. She had some that I did not agree with, but on balance she certainly made a very positive contribution to the chamber, to this council, and to the district," said Cllr O'Rourke.
"I want to offer her, her husband Ed, and their children, our good wishes for the future and I'm sure she will be back as a public representative in the future. I certainly hope so," he added.
Cllr Frankie Keena, in his speech after being elected as the new Athlone Mayor, congratulated all of the elected members and commiserated with Louise Heavin on the loss of her seat.
"It would be remiss of me not to thank all the candidates who put their name on the ballot paper, this is what democracy is all about," said Cllr Keena.
Cllr Tom Farrell said that he wanted to be associated with the tributes to Louise Heavin, adding that he hoped that she would continue to be involved in politics in the future.
All nine of the councillors elected to the Athlone Moate Municipal District last month had served on the local authority at some stage in the past, most for a number of terms.
The emphatic poll-topping performance of Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, who had not been an elected representative since losing his Dáil seat in 2020, ensured that at least one of the councillors who had served in the district over the previous five years was going to miss out on re-election.