In the course of his address to the Annual General Meeting of Castlebar Town Council on Thursday 26th June 2003 the outgoing Mayor Mr. Michael Kilcoyne looked back over his year as Mayor of Castlebar.

"...Twelve months ago the members of this Council gave me the greatest honour that you could offer to any member by electing me Mayor of the Council and I have since tried to carry out my duties on behalf of the Council to the best of my ability. Looking back over the 12 months it is difficult enough to pinpoint the major issues that arose and indeed to recall what were the most important events that occurred. Perhaps if I say to you that greeting the arrival of the Olympic flame in Castlebar was the highlight of the year then you will understand that this was a unique event which will probably not happen again in the lifetime of some of us, and most certainly will not happen in the lifetime of this Council. It is difficult to describe the experience when you see the "Flame of Hope" that brought so much hope to athletes who took part in the Special Olympics. I was honoured to be Mayor during that period and to make a presentation on behalf of the Host Town Committee to the law enforcement officers who carried the flame into our Town.

There were other events too that stick in my memory, events like earlier this week meeting the 10 children who came from Chernobyl to spend a month in Castlebar with host families. When you look into the eyes of these children after their 20 hour journey to get here you see the wonder of expectation and you see the fear of being away from their families, and in a Foreign Country and yet I would have to take the opportunity to salute these families who decided to offer their homes to these children and show them love and care at the other side of the World. It would be remiss of me also not to congratulate the Committee who organise such an event

During the past 12 months the Council probably gave more civic receptions and addresses of welcome that it has ever given before and it was my privilege on behalf of the Council to present them. I recall the football teams, the soccer teams and the teams that won at debating and indeed I had the privilege of presenting the trophies on behalf of the Castlebar Aces/Bulls Basketball Club, and indeed on behalf of the racquetball Club at their International Tournament. All of these involved young people, young people who are giving of their time to part-take in sport and it is such a pity that more young people would not participate in sport because they are our future and while we always talk and hear about the ones that are causing difficulties, very rarely do we hear about the ones who are the leaders in their clubs, are the leaders on the field and I want to particularly salute these young people for their work and for the inspiration and hope that they bring to their County, to their Team and to their Families. I recall too civic receptions like the one for Sr. Mary Teresa, The Order of Malta, and Enda Kenny. I want to thank Councillor Johnny Mee for his assistance in preparing all the scrolls for these receptions.

We have an outstanding Town in Castlebar. Over the year many projects were completed. The Market Square was finalised, and indeed the development at Market Square has won a design award. The Mall has been completed. Work is under way on a Christmas lighting scheme, which I hope will be the envy of many other Towns and I want to particularly acknowledge the co-operation of the working committee of Councillor Pat King, Councillor Frank Durkan and Oliver Kellegher and Patsy Fadden from the Chamber of Commerce.

The Council has many projects ongoing that it wants to bring to fruition, from the riverside walks to the Castle Street development to the children’s playground, to the new swimming pool and indeed many others. But the reality is that we are so pinned down by the lack of finance that it makes the job of Mayor or Councillor almost impossible to do. There is little point in having a title unless you have the power to do something and indeed the same applies to the title of Councillor. The Castlebar swimming pool is still buried in the archives of the Department and the latest information I have is that to build the pool it will take an additional three million Euro along with the Department grant. The children’s' playground has been a priority for this Council and indeed over the last number of years we have set aside in each of our yearly estimates an amount of money and hopefully it will come to fruition this year. Equally, I hope that work will commence on the Riverside Project this year as well as on the Castle Street Development. The new Christmas Lighting Scheme will be in place and operational for Christmas. A working group composed of Councillor Blackie Gavin, Councillor Frank Durcan, the Town Engineer Shane McDonnell and myself are examining the question of acquiring football pitches for the Town for our young people and again the Council is committed to doing this and hopefully this will come to fruition during the next 12 months. The submissions and observations of the Public have been received in relation to the new Town Plan and these submissions are currently with the Consultants and will be referred back to the Council for consideration and amendment if necessary later on this year.

I would like to record by thanks and appreciation to the many organisations and individuals who invited me to attend their functions or events over the last 12 months. It was indeed an honour to have attended them and a privilege and in any case where I wasn't able to be present myself I was ably represented by the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Aiden Crowley.

As I said earlier it is indeed the greatest honour that the Council can give anyone to elect them for the position of Mayor of their Town and I want to thank each of the eight Councillors for the co-operation and assistance that they have given me over that last 12 months. Sure there was differences between us but there will always be differences when there are people involved and that is the essence of democracy that issues are debated in an open frank and forthright manner so I am extremely grateful to all of my eight colleagues. I want to in particular thank the Deputy Mayor Councillor Aiden Crowley for his assistance, his advise and for representing me on the many occasions that I was unable to be present at events myself. I want to thank the Councillors who served on sub groups of the Council particularly Councillor Blackie Gavin, Councillor Pat King, Councillor Frank Durcan. I want to thank the staff of Castlebar Town Council for their assistance and co-operation over the last 12 months in particular I wanted to thank the Town Clerk Marie Crowley and the Assistant Town Clerk Cathy Jennings and Kathleen McHale. At all times I received their total co-operation and they gave me complete courtesy and assistance any time I asked for it. I want to also record my thanks the Town Engineer Mr. Shane McDonnell for his assistance and his help in dealing with issues that I brought to his attention and for his on-going co-operation. I also want to thank the Town Foreman Mr. Pat Healy and the Assistant Foreman Pat Flannelly and the outdoor and indoor staff of the Council for their help and assistance. I also want to thank the Town Manager Ray Norton for his help and assistance during my term as Mayor. I want to thank and acknowledge the assistance I have received from the Staff of Mayo County Council and in particular from the Senior Executive Officer Mr. Padraig Flanagan. I also want to acknowledge the assistance I have received from other areas of Mayo County Council including the housing office and the engineering department and I also want to thank Patsy Burke for his assistance who is Acting Town Manager during the absence of Ray Norton who is on holidays. Differences will always arise between Councillors and Officials but it is important that both sides acknowledge and accept that the other side has a job to do and at the end of the day all of us try to do what we can to help our Town, both as elected representatives and as staff of the Council. During the year we received Deputation’s from many groups and indeed I want to thank them for the effort that they make to help our Town and I can particularly recall how impressed I was with the submissions made to us by the Teacher and Pupils of St. Joseph’s Secondary School on their Green Week Project.

During the year also we made representations to many groups and I also want to acknowledge their help and co-operation. I also want to pay tribute and to thank the Garda Siochana in Castlebar for the assistance that I have received from them. In particular I want to thank Superintendent Joe Staunton, Inspector Padraig O'Toole and Sergeant Byrne who I met earlier this week at extremely short notice. The meeting was arranged within hours of my request where I had to raise with them the question of vandalism that was taking place in the Knockthomas Area of the Town. The Gardiai do a good job but it is difficult to do a job when the resources that you have are the same as they were 6 years ago and the population that you serve is doubled. It seems to me that with the cutbacks that have taken place in our Country areas like the Gardai, Health, and Education have suffered and that is to be regretted. Nonetheless I acknowledge and I accept the assurances that have been given to me that the thuggery that is taking place in areas in this Town will be extinguished and I would say to the parents of these people. 'You have a responsibility to your sons and your daughters, to know where they are, to know what they are up to but you also have a responsibility to ensure that they do not have a criminal record because if they have a criminal record and if they keep being involved in thuggery they will have one. This will affect them for the rest of their lives and it will particularly affect them career wise but you have it within your power to ensure that that does not happen'.

I also want to thank the local media, the Connaught Telegraph, The Mayo News, Western People and Mid-West Radio for the coverage they have given to the Council and for the coverage they have given to me personally. The media is any area is a very powerful organisation and it is important that they carry out their duty in reporting in a fair and impartial manner and as I said I am grateful to them for the coverage they have given to this Council and to me. I again want to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone for the kindness and courtesy that they have afforded me over the last 12 months. I also want to thank my family, friends and supporters without whose help it would not be possible. If I have offended anyone over the 12 months then that would be a matter of great regret to me and I hope that they accept fully that it was not intentional. I would like to wish our Colleague Councillor Frank Durkan who is in hospital a speedy recovery and to extend to him the good wishes of the Council. I wish the incoming Mayor every success and every co-operation and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the Town as a Councillor.

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