30/07/2025
Cllr. Ciarán Fisher reflects on first year as a councillor
Last year, barely two months out from the local elections, Dundalk native Ciarán Fisher was trying to figure out who to vote for. When going through the list of candidates, Ciarán realised there were not too many on the list who were living in the town centre and promising to represent the town itself. Also, none of the candidates were promising to fix all the issues he was passionate about such as community facilities, animal welfare.
Ciarán grew up in Drive 2 Muirhevnamór before moving to Pearse Park when he was 11. As well as loving sports, Ciarán enjoyed school, especially English and History and that passion for those subjects has continued into his day job where he has taught History and English in Coláiste Chú Chulainn for the past ten years. He currently lives in the town centre with his Fiancée Emma, his daughter Lara, son Bran and his two rescue greyhounds (Maud and Cyril).
Speaking to the Dundalk Leader, the Independent Councillor gave an insight into how he got involved in politics and what his first year in the job has been like.
“Growing up I will hold my hands up and say I was never very political in the sense I was never in any political organisation or group or anything like that. Like I’d read the newspapers and when I was younger my Dad would buy the newspaper and when he was finished with it I’d read it starting from the back and read the sport and as you got towards the front occasionally you’d read about certain stories about social issues and think, that’s annoying.
“Like I think when people say they are not political I think that’s not really true as everybody is political in some shape, way or form. Even if it’s just a case of being annoyed by the potholes outside your house or rubbish being dumped in your estate, or inflation or not being able to get a house for yourself, your children etc. Naturally the method for complaining about that or trying to get it addressed is via politics because otherwise you are shouting into the wind.
For me I gradually came around to the view that it was better to be involved in politics than standing on the outside and blindly hoping things would change. I had tuned into the most recent local elections where I suppose previously my only involvement in local elections would have been me going on, looking at the ballot and casting my vote after maybe recognising somebody who had called to the door.
“I’ve always read the local newspapers and would have been fairly tuned into local issues and I think it’s maybe just the age that I’m at I recognise now that there’s people who are coming just behind me that are finding it very hard to get on the property ladder. I was starting to notice these problems from being involved with football. I was noticing young people leaving the country and I think that made me that bit more aware of some of the local issues.
“To get back to my decision to run for local elections last year I suppose I kind of felt that Dundalk was a town was somewhat under- represented relative to some of the other areas around the county. I recognised that as a proud Dundalk man and I wanted to make sure our great town was represented and well represented. Another reason I wanted to put my hand up and stand for election is because I’m a teacher and I teach history and English and taught CSPE and I’m always telling my students how change can begin with an individual. If you want to change society, you have to get involved and part of my decision to run was in replicating that advice and showing that what I teach is a possibility and if you do want to go out and make a difference that you can get involved with communities and clubs and you can get involved with politics and you can make a difference.
“As for the moment I decided to run, it was a very spur of the moment thing I have to say. It wasn’t that I thought long and hard about it. I was reading some articles about the local election and I was a bit underwhelmed about it. I didn’t think anybody was hitting all of the things that I was particularly interested in, whether that be community facilities, animal welfare, community engagement etc. I thought well, is somebody going to put their name forward that will reflect my views or will it always be a compromised choice I make when deciding who to vote for.
“It was quite late, on a Saturday night when I was sitting on my computer and I asked myself hypothetically, what would my priorities look like? I typed them up and then I thought, ok, if you are going to launch a campaign, what else do you need? You need all the other things like the visuals, the posters, the flyers. I then began to play around for a few hours designing a flyer to see what it looked like and was thinking I might run it by a few people during the week.
“I made the poster and then just posted it on social media and then went to bed and then I just woke up the next day and I was committed to it. I had a quick thought wondering if I should just delete the message and say it was a joke and then I thought in some regards that’s the hardest bit done. As it turned out that was very incorrect as it is pretty tough running an election campaign without the backing of a party. I think my partner Emma got a bit of a shock when I announced that I was running for local election but she was very supportive and from that point on it was all systems go really.
“I think it was about seven weeks out from the election which was quite late so I had to quickly formulate a plan. I think I probably lost about a stone weight from walking around the town knocking on doors and telling people what I stood for. I knocked every urban door in Dundalk and did some rural canvassing but eventually decided to just focus on the urban areas as I was spending hours in the rural parts of the county and only talking to maybe ten or fifteen people.
“I remember going in to sign up to put my name down as a candidate and I was shown the electoral boundary and I remember going ‘Oh God’. It is such a huge area to cover but thanks to help from my brother and friends we did manage to cover a lot of ground.
“On the day of the count my biggest fear was embarrassing myself by getting hardly any votes but thankfully after the first few counts I was kind of hanging around sixth and seventh in what was a six seater so at that point I was just delighted that I hadn’t made a fool of myself. It’s a long and exhaustive day in the Count centre but it is a fascinating process and it is great to see democracy in action right before your eyes as you get to watch the counters count each and every vote.
“When it became clear that I was successful and had won a seat the feelings were just very thankful and proud that I had managed to do it with such a small team behind me. There was no big party machine or anything like that. I felt honoured and privileged that the people of my town had placed their faith in me but I knew that the hard work would really start now. I knew I had a lot to learn about the processes of being a councillor and going to meetings but I’m a quick learner and I was excited for the challenge that lay ahead.
“When you go into that first council meeting you see the media sitting in the corner and you realise that everything you say and do is being recorded. It was a proud moment sitting in my seat as when you are elected a seat is not just an abstract thing, you actually get a seat which is yours until the next election.
“Given the fact I am a teacher as well it has been a hectic year but I have learned how to manage my time better and ensure that I don’t suffer with burnout. As a councillor you get calls constantly asking you to help them with issues and I enjoy that part of it and it is satisfying when you are able to get things done. You do get some people coming up to you in the street and demanding things get fixed immediately but in general people are good and if they see me with my family they’ll say ‘I’ll get you again or I’ll give them a card and they’ll contact me at a later time.
“Burnout is definitely a risk and it’s a lot of work and it can consume you if you let it do so but I’ve also said to people as well that politics has to have a space in it for people that are working other jobs or have a family at home because that is representative of society. It can’t just be the preserve of people doing it because they have loads of free time or because they can afford to do it. It has to be accessible. I don’t think it always is accessible to all kinds of people and it has to be doable for somebody with a job and a kid or there’s something wrong with the system.
“I feel like at this stage I have my feet under the table now and I’m more confident in tackling issues and progressing things forward and getting things over the line now. I’m in my second year now so I can no longer use the excuse that I’m new. I think when you start any new job there is maybe a degree of imposter syndrome where you come in and you have your ideas and you are saying to yourself ‘Am I any good at this?” So that has faded now and I’m a bit more confident.
“A lot of the job is actually secretarial. It’s sending emails. It’s going back and forth trying to get information and moving that information around as opposed to actually doing stuff so while it is a serious job in some regards because you are shaping policy that’s not most of the job. Most of the job is meeting people and trying to join the dots and helping them get the right form, the right information, advocating for them the right way to make sure they are looked after the way they should be.
“I think the local authority system as it is now has plenty of room for improvement but it does sort of work. It’s a miracle how we get through a week, a month or a year sometimes given how underfunded or dysfunctional some things can be but it does work in a roundabout way and it generally errs on the side of progress and good albeit maybe it’s not as efficient as it could be.
“I think the solution to it becoming more efficient is to give the councillors more say and a bit more power. I do understand that the council are underfunded and are trying to put in square pegs in round holes sometimes with the budget that they are giving from central government. And by the way this is the same central government that says they are awash with money.
When asked if he would be tempted to join one a political party Ciarán says he feels it would be disingenuous to do so during this term given the fact that he was voted in as an independent.
“I feel that because I’ve been voted in as an independent, that’s the furrow I have to plough. I think it would be disingenuous having gone around to the doors as an independent. That’s what got me here and that’s how I have to proceed for the next four years. I can obviously see the comforts and the protection and the benefits of being involved within the system of a party and I am sometimes envious of it as I said given the fact I was elected as an independent I will proceed as one.
“As well as that I think we need other voices in politics as well who can speak their mind. Parties are whipped and although I think the parties have some great candidates in Dundalk like Seán Kelly for Fianna Fáil, Kevin Meenan for Sinn Fein or Robbie Nash, a man of the people for Fine Gael and I could never personally attack any of those guys but I can certainly attack their parties and I have certainly issues with their parties policies and I can criticise them in the way that maybe Seán, Kevin or Robbie can’t and that’s a problem with politics. Where you have somebody that you like and you know and you suspect that you have a lot of common ground but they aren’t allowed to speak to an issue.
"Like for instance with the likes of housing I’m sure candidates from parties in government are being told, don’t be criticising housing! Deflect, defer, mention this figure about how many houses are going to be built next year and to me that is very limiting.
“In four years time I’d like to be remembered as somebody who put their name forward, tried their best, was effective, gave it their all and if I were to run again people might vote for me based on that. I’ve shown it can be done on your own with a lot of hard work and a little bit of investment. I’ve shown you can stand up and represent your community and maybe in some way I’ve broken the mould as there hasn’t been an independent seat in Dundalk/Carlingford in a long time.
“I’m a proud Dundalk man. I just like the town. I love the people. It’s a lovely kind of size of an urban area and there’s enough of us that we’re our own people. We’re the smallest county but we have these two distinct towns that we’ve created our own kind of sub-culture and our own place and it’s a place to be proud of. And as a father of two I want to ensure that when my kids are growing up that they will be proud of Dundalk too so that’s what keeps me going really,” concluded Ciarán.
