Cllr. Tom Farrell (FG) was elected Mayor of the Athlone Municipal District for 2015/16 on Tuesday evening, showing the FF/FG alliance in the town, for its second year is still intact.  The new Mayor is a former Westmeath County Board GAA Chairman.

Mayor Farrell is part of the alliance which includes the new Deputy Mayor, Cllr. John Dolan, also of Fine Gael, and Fianna Fail’s Cllr. Aengus O’Rourke and Cllr. Frankie Keena.   Keena’s term as Mayor came to an end this week.   Dolan proposed Farrell, and O’Rourke seconded.  The Deputy Mayor was proposed by Keena while O’Rourke seconded.

Also on the seven member council team is Cllr. Paul Hogan of Sinn Fein and Independents, Cllr. Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran and Cllr. Michael O’Brien. However it’s unlikely that the last three will get a Mayoral post before 2019.

Each of the four in the FF/FG alliance will have a year as Mayor/Deputy Mayor, but there is still the 5^th and final year of the council to be decided. It’ll be a year up for grabs, and only one of the four, who will already have been Mayor, can become Mayor in time for the Local Elections 2019.