Ferris’s daughter set to become Kerry mayor
28 June 2005
By Donal Hickey
THE daughter of Kerry North Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris is set to become Kerry mayor as part of a deal with Fianna Fáil.
Student Toireasa Ferris, 25, is expected to be elected to the chair at tomorrow’s annual meeting of the 27-member Kerry County Council, in Tralee, with a large group of republican supporters in the public gallery.
Following last year’s local elections, Fianna Fail’s Ned O’Sullivan won the mayorship in what was described as a “technical arrangement” between 11 FF councillors, two SF councillors and the two Healy-Rae brothers who go under the banner of Independent FF.
The deal gave a comfortable majority to FF, whose members will have the mayoralty for three of the five years of the council’s term. One of the Healy-Raes is due to occupy the chair in the fourth year.
Ms Ferris had been co-opted onto her father’s county council seat prior to last year’s elections.
A graduate in law and European studies, she is in the final stages of a master’s degree in human rights and criminal justice at Queen’s University, Belfast.
The last time Sinn Féin held the chair was in 1970/’71 when the incumbent was the late Cllr Redmond O’Sullivan, from Killarney.
With the election of Martin Ferris to the Dáil, in 2002, Sinn Féin has gained a firm foothold in the Kerry North constituency, where it has five elected councillors.
