Limerick Post reporter caught up with City West Independent councillor Fergus Kilcoyne for a frank and meandering chat about his outlook on life, Local Elections 2024, a right old hooley with the Limerick hurlers, and why he would never go back to Fine Gael.
INDEPENDENT councillor Fergus Kilcoyne is a man with a lot going on under his proverbial hat.
The Patrickswell man, who ran the Dark Horse Pub in the village for over two decades, is currently donning his thinking cap and, as it turns out, has a lot on his mind.
As a wise man once said, “the trouble with having an open mind is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it”, This is part of the problem Cllr Kilcoyne is currently facing.
With Local Elections 2024 just nine months away, he has lots of opinions to take on board, and lots to consider, before deciding where he will lay his fedora come next June.
The Independent City West representative, a former Fine Gael man, says he’s currently being courted by Fianna Fáil, but seems to be gauging which way the wind will blow before playing his hand. A shrewd businessman indeed.
Old schoolmates
With political winds of change blowing, and predictions of cataclysmic shifts in local government, a Shakespearean sense of trepidation has now set in.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors have a haunted look about them at present. It is as if they have been set adrift at sea and can foretell the damage the raging storm on the horizon is going to cause when it finally reaches the shore.
If I was a betting man, I’d suggest to Cllr Kilcoyne that his chances of re-election might be better as an Independent candidate. But I am not. Still, he certainly has some sleepless nights ahead.
No matter how hard I push though, he’s not taking my bait.
I recently met up with Fergus, originally from a farming background in Ballysheedy, and automatically hit it off with him.
As it turns out, he was only a few years ahead of me in my old alma mater, St Clement’s College. As we set off from the old Croom Mill for a riverside walk on the most beautiful of mornings, the conversation is flowing as we talk about our school days and the teachers we would have shared in secondary school.
Courted by Fianna Fáil
With the mood relaxed and the banter flowing, I decide this could be an opportune moment to push him on the rumours of him joining Fianna Fáil. But no, he’s staying schtum, giving nothing away.
“As an Independent, I’m my own man, but at the same time there’s some issues you would need to get a TD or Minister involved and thankfully, here in Limerick, Kieran O’Donnell has opened his office to me. He came personally to me and told me that if I was ever stuck for anything that he would help me out when it comes to medical cards or something like that. And also Niall Collins came to me and told me that his office is open to me as well and, if I was ever stuck, he would help me,” he explains.
That, I suggest, is what has the rumour mill working overtime at the moment that he’s about to get into bed with Fianna Fáil in the next Local Election.
“That’s what has people talking,” he agrees with a chuckle. “I get on great with them all. I don’t create enemies.”
“I’ll tell you, when I got elected as an Independent councillor back in 2019, I was actually approached by Fine Gael to see if I would go back into their camp. I would never do it because of the way they treated me.
“They should have realised at the time that I was good, I follow up issues for people. I was even doing it before 2014 when I was in the pub trade. People will ask you what’s the best way to go about things and I would always help them out. Because if you are in hospitality that’s what you do. In recent times I have been approached by Fianna Fáil to know if I would run for them.
“I haven’t said yes and I haven’t said no, but I am giving it a lot of consideration. You’d have to. I feel maybe, within a party, would I be able to get more done?” he ponders.
Ousted from Fine Gael
As the last rays of summer sunshine beat down on us, Fergus tells me that he was never politically motivated prior to running for local government.
“I was never involved in any party. I was actually approached back in the 2014 Local Election by the Willie O’Brien Branch of Fine Gael in Patrickswell. They asked me if I would consider running on their behalf because they were requested from Dublin to get a business person involved from Patrickswell, and that’s how I got involved.
“Back in 2014, I was the last man standing at the election and then in 2019, I was selected at the convention and I came to go forward for Fine Gael. And then a bit of skulduggery went on within the hierarchy of Fine Gael. My name was taken off the paper and young Daniel McSweeney was put on the paperwork, coming from Young Fine Gael, and I was made step aside.
“I was chairman of the Willie O’Brien Branch and I resigned over that. A lot of the branch members walked out with me and asked me would I consider running as an Independent.
“We put in a massive campaign — about 20 of the local Fine Gael branch got involved with me, supported me because they weren’t happy with the way I was treated, and I got elected. It’s all down to those people.
He continues: “It’s not just Fergus Kilcoyne. I have to speak to my team and I really appreciate what those people did for me back in 2019. They walked out of the meeting after me and they said ‘would you consider going as an Independent?’ I said, well, if ye are prepared to back me, I will. And that’s how I ended up being a councillor. It is down to those people who are ex-Fine Gael that supported me and pushed me to go as an Independent.
“As an Independent, if I think a thing is right I will vote for it in the Chamber, but if I think a thing is wrong, I will vote against it. I have no bad blood but if I think a thing is wrong for Limerick City, I wouldn’t be voting for it.
“I have no decision. My thinking cap is on,” he says in regard to where his allegiances may lay for Local Elections 2024. “I’ll take the cap off closer to Christmastime. After Christmas then the gloves will be off for the Local Election.”
‘A waste of money’
At this point I decide my probing will get me no further on this one. As we get into our stride and the blood gets pumping, feeling a little mischievous, I decide to change tack.
With 38 years behind him in the hospitality sector as a hotel manager and publican, I decide to see if the Directly Elected Mayor’s role is something Fergus might have a separate thinking cap for.
“No, definitely not. I think it is blown out of all proportion because they are not giving the power that a mayor should have. They have watered it down. I think before they got into the plebiscite in 2019 people didn’t realise what they were voting for. And do you know something? I reckon that office is going to cost €1million, which in my book is a waste of money.
“I am very passionate about Limerick City and I would be very critical of money being wasted. The money could be better spent elsewhere. We have housing problems, we have people sleeping on the streets of Limerick, we have suicide — money could be better invested,” Cllr Kilcoyne insists.
A clearly enthusiastic and outgoing character, Fergus is a political anomaly in many respects. A man from another time, considering he is probably one of the very few people I’ve met in the local authority that does not engage with social media.
“When I get phone calls from constituents in Limerick City West, they come on the phone and they say ‘you’re answering your phone.’
“I always answer my phone,” he insists.
“I’d say 25 per cent of the calls I get that will be the first line. ‘He’s answering his phone’. I never refuse to do anything for anyone because that’s in my nature.
“When I worked the pub trade, I worked seven days a week. I did breakfasts in the pub. I was probably there at 8 o’clock in the morning and when I was giving my barman a couple of days off I would work through until one o’clock that night, and my boys would let me down for my dinner in the evening. You couldn’t keep that going and do this job as well.
“I love meeting people and I love trying to help people. I love to try and help the underprivileged.
“I think in the next election, housing is going to become a massive issue. I know we have massive problems with the health system but I think the number one issue will continue to be housing. In Limerick City West, we have some houses now where there’s three generations living under one roof. It is completely wrong. It is a sad state of affairs for the young people.
“I would say I have at least 50 families on my books between Patrickswell, Clarina, Ballybrown, Mungret, and a few from Raheen crying to me nearly every week on the phone going, ‘Fergus, when is there going to be private housing schemes?’
“Now there’s one after being announced on the Dock Road, but the people in Patrickswell want to live in Patrickswell. They want to play hurling for Patrickswell. There’s a great tradition, we have three of the best players on the Limerick team and we’re so proud of them. It means a lot to the GAA club and it’s great when you see the kids going down the street with hurleys.
“I’m a member of the Patrickswell GAA. I would have started off in my young days when I came from Ballysheedy with South Liberties but I trained greyhounds then while I was in school and when I started working I had to give up the greyhounds. At one stage I would have had up to 30 greyhounds, and I was very successful at it. But when you start to work, you don’t have the time”.
A right session with the Limerick hurlers
Amongst Kilcoyne’s other headgear, a hat he wears with great pride, is his sporting cap. As well as being uncle to Irish Rugby international Dave Kilcoyne, whose exploits in the World Cup he is currently following with great relish, he is also his godfather.
“Sometimes I give him an odd bit of advice. Not too often, but sometimes, the odd time,” he says.
“It’s a great achievement for Dave to get to the World Cup. All his family, we are thrilled for him. It’s a massive achievement and he has worked so hard after injury to get back into the squad.
“I go to a few of the games. I will be looking up seats for the semi-final or the final. We have to follow Munster Rugby because they are brilliant,” he enthuses, grinning from ear to ear.
Fergus gets even more animated when the subject is moved onto hurling.
“The Limerick hurlers are brilliant role models,” he insists.
“We have Aaron Gillane, Diarmaid Byrnes, and we have Cian Lynch in Patrickswell. They are all top players and they brought hurling to a new standard.
“Even older people, we look up to them. They are our idols. I thought I would never see an All-Ireland final and we’re after winning four, and hope to God we’ll win five and go on and beat Kilkenny and Cork’s record.
“In 2018 when they won, about 10 or 12 of them arrived into the Dark Horse and the next thing nearly the whole team was there. I had a few at the counter and they started taking photographs. I said to the lads, ‘is there something on tonight?’ They said ‘we’ve a night off’.
“So I said to everyone to put away the phones, it’s their time. Around 10 o’clock we closed the doors, I turned the music up, and we had a great night. I gave them a free bar for the night and it was fabulous. They still talk about it.”
A vision for the Ryder Cup
Before I take his leave, Fergus gives his business hat a try. He tells me that he is a man that looks to the future and it is this sort of vision he wants to see from Limerick City and County Council when planning for the 2027 Ryder Cup.
“I made a suggestion to the Council two years ago that when the train line opens in Foynes that it should be a passenger train for the Ryder Cup because of the infrastructure that needs to go into Adare for it. I also suggested there should be cruise ships coming into Foynes that would sleep maybe 4,000 on each ship.
“You have to put thinking caps on and look at things outside of the normal. All I do is sow the seed. This is what I feel that Limerick needs, and the businesses in Limerick need, because they are crippled at the moment.
“The streets have gotten narrower, the footpaths have got wider, and there’s no footfall. Wouldn’t it be great to have something in Foynes like what they have in Cobh?
“A ship coming in every week and the train drops them off to Limerick City. They’d go in and maybe spend €500/€1000. These ships, they have plenty of money to burn. They are retired people. Wouldn’t it be great for our city?
“They need to get people back into the city centre. It’s dying on its feet.”
