John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have to admit, after two years in the Oireachtas, this is certainly a speech I am quite nervous to make. There is certainly no pressure. I first met Terry Brennan when I was nine years of age when he was running alongside my dad in the 1999 local elections. Terry was the scourge of any Fine Gael Dundalk candidate because, even though he was from the rural part of the constituency in Carlingford, he always got 350 to 400 votes in Dundalk town, 25 km away. He was able to get that vote because he knew absolutely everybody. Even to this day, in doing the job I do, not a week or a month passes in which Terry Brennan's name is not mentioned in some way, shape or form. When I ran for the Seanad in 2020, every second councillor asked me how Terry was. This was just a few months before he sadly passed away.

Terry was famous for a number of things, one of which was politics. Outside of that was his football career. Before today's debate, I spoke to Jim Thornton in Greenore, an expert on the GAA and Terry's beloved Cooley Kickhams, and he outlined a couple of things to me. These are Jim's words, not mine. He said that, as a forward, Terry was a very skilful left-footed player and a great team player rather than an individual. He always put the team ahead of his own personal glory on the pitch. Peter Savage might correct me if I am wrong but I believe Terry was captain of the side that won the 1973 Louth senior championship. Mr. Thornton said that, while Terry did not have an intercounty career, he should have had because he was absolutely up to the standard of County Louth footballers in the 1970s. He was a very mobile and very capable of looking after himself on the football pitch. I know it was the same for politics. He was very well capable of looking after himself there.

He first ran for Louth County Council in 1985. In that election, the Cooley area was a three-seat electoral area. He was up against Peter Savage, who is sitting in the Gallery now, and a famous Fine Gael councillor, Tommy Elmore, who had been a councillor for 20 or 25 years. The two of them went at it hammer and tongs and increased the Fine Gael vote by more than ever before in that 1985 election. Terry pipped Tommy Elmore to the post and went on to serve as a member of Louth County Council for 26 years, being re-elected in 1991, 1999, 2004 and 2009. He ran for the Dáil in 1997 and 2002. He was very unlucky that, when an opportunity opened up for him, it was in 2002 because that was one of the worst elections for Fine Gael in recent memory. It was unlucky that his opportunity to take the national stage in Dáil Éireann was stifled by the very poor election result of Fine Gael that time around.

Around 2004, Terry retired from the ESB and, in the 2004 election, he got approximately 850 first-preference votes. He then acted as a full-time councillor for the five years to 2009 and doubled his vote from 850 to 1,450. In the local elections in 2019, when I was running for re-election, I was watching the tallies come out and, as the votes came in, I saw that the tallies had me at 1,470. I was delighted to have beaten Terry Brennan's vote because he had the highest vote ever for Fine Gael in the north Louth electoral area, an electoral area that is, to be straight about it, not very friendly to Fine Gael for a couple of reasons, mainly because Peter Savage cleaned up there for 30 years through his ability as a county councillor. It turns out I had not beaten Terry's vote. Someone had given me the wrong tally count. I had got 80 votes in a box that did not exist so, unfortunately, I did not beat him. I believe that no one will and that his record for a Fine Gael vote in the north Louth area will stand the test of time.

I will speak briefly to Terry's political friendship with Peter Savage. Peter was first elected in 1974. The way those on the Cooley Peninsula always voted was to give their number one to Brennan and their number two to Savage or their number one to Savage and their number two to Brennan. It crossed party political lines. Despite living less than 2 km apart, the two were able to get 1,300, 1,400 or 1,500 votes every election. It was absolutely incredible. There is not one person on the Cooley Peninsula who does not owe their planning permission to either Terry Brennan or Peter Savage. Perhaps that was the key to their having electoral success for so long. I welcome Terry's family here today.They have become very good friends of mine in recent years and have been good to me throughout my time in politics. That friendship goes a lot further back, particularly through my uncle, the late Brendan McGahon, who ran with Terry in the 1997 general election. They were very firm friends for a very long time and I have a lovely picture on my phone of the two of them having lunch in the Ballymascanlon House Hotel in 2017, just before my uncle passed away.

It is so great to have Terry's family here. He had a wonderful five years here and it was a great way to top off a stellar political career at local level. It is great to have his friends here, including former Deputy Brian Walsh and Deputy Carey. His other friends are watching, including former Minister of State, Paudie Coffey, former Deputy Noel Coonan and a lot of people I met at his funeral who are very close to him. It is a pity Bobby could not be here. I know he is watching from Augusta, where Terry liked to visit regularly. A joke was made earlier that they used to see Terry on the TV in Augusta because he was so well-positioned every time. It is great to have Tanya and David here and, in particular, it is great to have Aileen, Terry's widow, here. It is great to have Tadhg, David's son, here, and Terry's three grandchildren, who I perhaps know the best, Aoife, Megan and Oran, who are children of Tanya and Paddy. I have not got to know Tadgh yet, but when he is 18 and he is able to vote I definitely will. I can see so many traits of their grandfather's personality in Aoife, Oran and Megan in so many different ways. I am utterly convinced that his legacy lives on and will live on within the Fine Gael family in the electorate of Dundalk, Carlingford and north Louth and in this House. They broke the mould when they made Terry Brennan.