Emotional Smith says late father looking down

Fianna Fáil's Áine Smith is emotional, overwhelmed, and relieved. There's barely room in the vortex of feeling swirling around her since she first woke shortly after 6am this morning to look after her twin boys to process much else. She happy too, ultimately. And why not?

With a tally outcome of 17.4%, Smith is on course to top the polls in Cavan-Belturbet, winning the seat in own right once held by her late father Séan who served as a public representative for 43 years. She tells the Celt: “There's a man upstairs who's extremely happy looking down right now today, and I can guarantee you he is laughing with delight at what has happened as is extremely happy.”

Smith says its “very hard to put into words” such how appreciative she is of the votes received.

“I still can't believe it,” says Smith, who will come close to the percentage total her father Séan got in 1999 when topping the poll in what was then the smaller Belturbet electoral area in 1999.

Working as a teacher in St Mogue's in Bawnboy, and previously at Loreto College in Cavan Town, the soon to be re-elected Smith is from Templeport but lives in Cavan Town with her family. Add to that the popularity of her late father Séan, and the position of her uncle Brendan as a TD in this constituency, Smith says coming onto the council she knew there was a high bar of expectation she'd need to live up.

She started where her dad left off, getting onto the board of Cavan-Monaghan ETB as a vocal opponent to the proposed closure of two local secondary schools, and was also nominated as Cathaoirleach on the Cavan-Belturbet MD for a year.

Smith also set about raising subjects she felt were important to the people represents.

“I left Loreto in 2017, and I was teaching there for 10 years before that. Its funny, they're now of voting age, not much younger than me at the time, and I suppose you don't think or realise that. I met a lot of people on the canvas that actually knew me, or I had links with through one thing or another. That certainly played a part.”

Smith though puts the all round success of her campaign to “team effort”.

“I was lucky in that daddy's work never went unnoticed and was well respected. But I suppose I went in in March 2023 knowing I had a year to get as much as I possibly could. I really put my foot to the floor, and anything that was raised with me, I brought up in chamber.”

Her first motion was on endometritis, an inflammation of the inner lining of the uterus estimated to affect 10 % (190 million) girls, women and individuals assigned female at birth worldwide. In Ireland it is estimated that 155,000 of women are affected by the condition.

“A lot of people didn't even know what endometritis was, but it is something a lot of women my age and younger are going through on a daily basis, and there had been no awareness of it in the council before now.”

As a teacher and educator as well Smith is driven by the idea that “no child is left behind”.

“I can see what education can do for people. I have really strongly advocated, whether its children in need of assessments or the impact Covid has had on young people, the role of social media and phones. They're issues, as a parent, I'm aware of too.”

Even at that, and having never run before, Smith says “nothing could be taken for granted”.

“I have to thank every single person who went out, who knocked on doors. Its mesmerising to see that people gave me their number one.”