YOUGHAL  GROUP CELTIC INVASION to Headline St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in Kuwait. The Youghal-based group Celtic Invasion have been invited to perform at the Kuwait Irish Society’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Ball, which will be held in the Hilton Hotel, Kuwait, on the 18th March.  The Kuwait Irish Society will celebrate 20 years in existence this year with a Gala Ball in one of Kuwait’s most exclusive hotels.  Celtic Invasion  are delighted to be given this opportunity and look forward to representing Ireland on the international stage.

Formed in 1991 following their success in Clonakilty’s International Buskers’ Festival , Celtic Invasion looked set for big things, with subsequent appearances on the Gay Byrne Radio Show and the highly popular Bibi show.  Having spent many years exploring their own interests, the group decided to reform in 2010, bringing together year’s of experience and innovation to their music.  World music influences now feature strongly in their performances, but they have remained loyal to their traditional music roots. With Influences of Bluegrass, Cajun, Baltic and Country, Celtic Invasion have created a truly unique sound, fusing mandolin, piano accordion and guitar with a strong backline of piano, percussion and bass.

Follow  Celtic Invasion on:

www.celticinvasion.net
www.facebook.com/celticinvasion
celticinvasionband@gmail.com

Youghal has a representative TD for the first time in over 30 years, following Sandra McLellan’s successful general election campaign. The Sinn Fein candidate had 649 votes to spare as she claimed the fourth Cork East seat from Fianna Fail’s Kevin O’Keefe on the seventh count. She joins Sean Sherlock (Lab), David Stanton (FG) and Tom Barry (FG) as the constituency’s representatives in the 31st Dail. Not since the late Sean Brosnan of Fianna Fail who was elected to the 21st Dail in 1977, has Youghal been represented at that level. Mr. Brosnan died in 1979, aged 62.

Sandra was joined by her family during the lengthy count on a momentous night in Mallow last Saturday. They included husband Liam and the two eldest of her three children, several other family members and about 40 supporters and campaign assistants from Youghal and east Cork. Following her victory, she handled national television and radio interviews with the style and confidence of veteran. “I made sure to talk up Youghal in every one of them too,” she smiles, in a positive indication that her priorities will not lie idle in the Oireachtas.

A day later, the 49 year-old was still running on a cocktail of relief, joy and optimism in her home in Ardrath. It was a day when neither she nor her telephones found rest, as well-wishers and media personnel came ringing and knocking with unprecedented fervour. “I’ve never experienced anything like it, “she says with the sincerity that has defined her short political career.

Sandra was first elected to Youghal Town Council in 2004. She successfully defended her seat in in poll-topping fashion in 2009, alongside winning a seat on Cork County Council. A former SIPTU shop steward, she worked in Artesyn and so is painfully aware of the devastation, personal and communal, of industry closures. It is no surprise then that she believes “job creation is the biggest and most difficult issue facing East Cork.”

Conquering cancer

If being rendered unemployed was life experience of an undesirable kind, it was minimal compared to a far greater adversity she faced a few short years ago. Diagnosed with breast cancer, she was eventually to win a battle that puts even the most daunting of political challenges in perspective. “I was just ucky,” she says, philosophically, seemingly oblivious to the inspiration of her survival. Coming from that situation, one might argue that her very campaign, let alone her success and any future impressions, was a lesson in fortitude and hope. As it is, she seems set to prove a powerful influence on her party’s policy on the provision of the cancer care that all the people of this country need and deserves.

From the vantage point of a battle well fought and finished, the victor reflects on the fight. “We always knew we had a very good chance of winning,” she says of her campaign camp, “but we felt it would be very close. We thought it might even go down to a hundred or so votes, though in the end I had a good few more to spare.” Nonetheless, she concedes that were moments of uncertainty during the long count, moments when the notion of failure flashed back and forth in her mind, like fish in a pond. “Then someone would point out that I was in the driving seat,” she recalls and her confidence would re-surface. She felt “unbelievably nervous” across the slow, 16 hours of edging towards triumph. She deserves the celebration that she “will probably in a week or two.”

Personal vote

Recalling the hours, days and weeks of canvassing, Sandra is perceptive enough to define her success as “a strong personal vote,” in regards to her home town at least. “Some people were keen on the party’s policies and considered the national picture,” she attests, “but mostly people just felt that Youghal now needs someone at that level.” She “hasn’t given any thought yet” to the weight of expectancy that people’s trust may carry, a burden not easily alleviated by the likelihood of a seat in opposition. “If so, I think we will be a very strong opposition,” she insists, “and I will certainly be a voice for Youghal and east Cork to the very best of my ability.”

Those 649 surplus votes will have altered her life immensely for the coming years at least, as she treads the corridors of Kildare Street. “I’m very fortunate in that I have a hugely supportive family,” she counters, in reference to Liam, son Graham, daughters Lorna and   Kelly, brothers Tony and Sean, parents Pauline and Gerald and sister-in-law and fellow town councillor Michelle, who “has been a rock” to her.

Leaving the chamber

It is a statutory requirement that the new TD will now have to relinquish her roles as town and councillor. Formerly Youghal’s first ever Sinn Fein mayor, she leaves behind a legacy of which she can be proud. As a member of the Fairtrade Committee, she was hugely influential in acquiring Fairtrade Status for Youghal. She is also Chairperson of the New Enterprise Centre at St. Marys College and is a strong supporter of the Community Alert and the Tidy Towns committees. For Sandra McLellan TD, Youghal’s need is now matched by that of her country. As ever, she is unlikely to be found wanting in either cause.

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank the thousands of voters from all over the constituency of Cork East, for placing your faith in me and allowing me the honour of representing you in the Dail.

This was a very hard fought campaign and one where your votes have not only determined the outcome of the contest, but will also determine how you will be represented over the coming years. The only promise I can make to you at the outset of this new Dail term, is that I and my party will work tirelessly to represent your interests, to reverse the cuts, the increased charges and hidden taxes and all the unjust measures that led to your anger before this election, and to offer the strongest possible opposition in the Dail to the conservative consensus for cuts and the squandering of €billions into zombie banks.

Over the term of this Dail, I will represent the people of all of Cork East without fear or favour and will make myself both accessible and accountable to everyone regardless of the area they belong. I will do this at a personal level and in conjunction with my party colleagues on Councils in Cobh, Midleton, Fermoy, Mallow and Youghal.
In terms of history, I am aware that I am the first ever female Sinn Féin TD to be elected to the Cork East constituency. I am also honoured to be a part of a team which will push my party’s Equality Agenda in the Dail, and to help bring about a fairer society of equals.

I would like to thank my campaign workers from all around Cork East, who recently went out knocking on doors in the dark and in the rain to help me get elected. You’re hard and tireless efforts in the promotion of our republican/socialist message have finally reaped rewards, and I share in your joy and in your pride for what we have achieved through this victory.

Finally, I would again like to thank all who voted for me. I will do all in my power to ensure your votes and trust in me will be sound political investments. I and my party are mere ambassadors for you to represent your interests in the Dail and together, I hope we will see our country a fairer and more equal and united place in which to live by the time of the next election.