Former FG Director of Elections backs local candidate.

Fay (Ind) polling well in early stages in Cavan-Belturbet.

Liam Kelly has lived in the town of Belturbet for the past 17 years. He is married, has two girls, and referees at the weekends. In a former life he was an election agent for Fine Gael as Director of Elections in Dublin North Central. The kind of people he worked to get elected was former Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications of Ireland, Richard Bruton, the late Paddy Belton and his brother Luke as Senator. In early 80's he even tried himself to get elected, standing for Fine Gael in Co Monaghan.

“I've been in politics all my life, from a young age,” explains Kelly, who following that decided to distance himself from party politics. It was only when Belturbet publican Brendan Fay decided to stand as an Independent in 2019, at the time fighting for the retention of the local secondary school, that he rekindled his interest.

“He was looking for help, so I said I'd go down an see what he was like, or what was going on. I felt he was worth coming on board with.”

Kelly says little has changed in the strategy to get elected compared to how it was five years ago, when Fay claimed 13.13 per cent of the vote.

Once again he has tallied high in own home town of Belturbet, and in neighbouring Killeshandra.

“Basically you knock every door and say hello to everybody. You outline your policies, what you're looking for, and why you think your man is the right man for the job. Its no more complicated than that.”

With boxes from Cavan Town still yet to be counted, Kelly says the Fay election team did put more focus on drumming up support from within the County Town.

“Every door,” he repeats. “Say hello to everybody, and listen to them. The people's voice is very important.”

He adds: “Cavan Town, last time out, I felt we didn't canvas enough. This time out was a different story. We canvassed the town very well. It got well looked after.”

He says of the strong showing in boxes local to Fay: “That's where you start from. You need the people behind you and you build from that.”