Reunite Cavan campaign steps up a gear

A petition to reunite the constituency of Cavan and Monaghan received a “hugely positive” response, garnering over a thousand signatures at the Taste of Cavan event alone.

The campaign to reunify the Cavan-Monaghan constituency for electoral purposes follows a decision by the Constituency Commission to detach west Cavan and incorporate it along with Sligo, Leitrim and South Donegal.
“The overall response was hugely positive,” says The Anglo-Celt’s Damien Donohoe, who manned the newspaper’s festival stand, drawing in a steady flurry of interested parties to sign the petition.
“It got widespread support, not just from Cavan people, but from people outside of the county, from Longford and Westmeath, even the likes of Leitrim who were saying that no county should be split as, in Leitrim for example, they went through the very same thing. So it was supported by 99% of the people there and passionately supported by the people of West Cavan.
“I met people from those areas who’d come up and sign it, and then bring over and drag others over to put their name on it too. It goes to show the interest that’s in it out there,” Mr Donohoe told the Celt.
The Taste of Cavan stand even became a sounding board for many people to voice their complaints and feelings of disenfranchisement arising out of the General Election earlier this year.
“One man told me how he lives three or four minutes outside of Cavan Town, that he considers himself from Cavan Town, and that during the last election leaflets came through the door, which he thought had nothing to do with him. It kept happening and it was only when he started to ask questions did he realise he had been moved from Cavan-Monaghan into the new Sligo-Leitrim constituency. So it struck a chord,” Mr Donohoe said.
He added: “The other thing people from West Cavan were saying, down in Mullahoran, Arvagh, Gowna, was that nobody ever came knocking on their door, or came looking for a vote off them. They felt basically isolated, and that if these people weren’t coming looking for a vote who then were they suppose to go to if they had a problem.”

The Reunite Cavan campaign is being supported by all of the TDs in this region and the petition is available to sign in their offices and on the first floor of the library in Cavan Town. It is also on online here at www.anglocelt.ie/reunitecavan, it takes less than a minute to sign. Please support.