Republican News · Thursday 10 January 2002

Mac Lochlainn to replace Jim Ferry on Buncrana UDC

Sinn Féin has announced that prominent Buncrana community activist Padraig Mac Lochlainn has been selected by the party to replace retiring Cllr Jim Ferry on Buncrana Urban District Council. The party hopes to see the 28-year-old co-opted onto the council at its meeting on Wednesday, 9 January.

Padraig Mac Lochlainn is best known as the Donegal spokesperson for the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU). He was a national executive member of the organisation for four years and presently represents the organisation on the National Rural Development Forum. Locally, he was a community director on the Inishowen Partnership Board for five years from 1996 to 2001. He is presently a director on the board of Action Inishowen.

The chairperson of Donegal Sinn Féin, Tom Dignam, said: "Padraig Mac Lochlainn has been a vigorous campaigner for the rights of the unemployed and other disadvantaged groups at local, national and European level, and our party is looking forward to him doing the same at local council level."

Commenting on his selection, Mac Lochlainn said: "I am deeply honoured to be given this opportunity by my fellow Sinn Féin members to build on the political foundation laid by the late Cllr Eddie Fullerton and of course by Cllr Jim Ferry. I am looking forward to working on behalf of the people of Buncrana to bring renewed economic and social prosperity to the town. I do not underestimate the size of the task ahead but I am confident that both my party and I will not be found wanting."