SHOCK AND SADNESS GREET THE PASSING OF THE COUNCILLOR FROM CORCAGHAN
News of the death yesterday, Wednesday morning at Cavan General Hospital of former Monaghan Co Council member Hugh McElvaney sent a wave of sadness emanating from his beloved Corcaghan bailiwick across Co Monaghan and much further beyond. A Co Councillor from 1974 until 2024, first for Fine Gael and latterly in Independent livery, Hughie’s half-century of service as a local public representative encompassed enough conquest, colour, controversy and campaigning to fill the entire column inches of this newspaper.
In the limited time and space available to us this week, it suffices to sketch his redoubtable achievements in the political sphere to note that he was elected on ten occasions to Co Monaghan’s premier local authority body and wore the chain of office of Mayor or Cathaoirleach in four of his years in office, also serving as Cathaoirleach of the more recently formed Ballybay-Clones Municipal District in the autumn of his political life. His repeated re-election embodied the precept for political excellence set out by Nicollo Machiavelli: “The best fortress which a prince can possess is the affection of his people.” On a number of occasions he topped the poll in the Clones segment of the Co Council divides, the smallest and most fiercely competitive electoral area in the county in the years prior to local government reform. The most colourful and most quotable of councillors, his political longevity was founded not on words but deeds and he treated all representations made to him by his constituents as a bond of trust to be honoured and delivered upon, and his record of delivery was formidable.
He was a councillor of campaigns, memorably securing the retention of the Co Library Headquarters in Clones when moves were afoot to move it to Monaghan; fighting like a lion across political divides at Northern Eastern Health Board and later HSE Regional Forum level in defence of Monaghan Hospital, and standing in the front lines with the campaigners against the overgrounding of the North-South Interconnector, an issue which prompted him to sever his Fine Gael ties and discharge the final years of his half-century in local politics as an Independent. In a message of condolence to his family, the Co Monaghan Anti Pylon Committee described him as “a committed Monaghan councillor who wasn’t afraid to speak up for his community no matter what insurmountable challenges they faced.”
His political career was periodically coloured by controversy. In May 1996 an incident on an Aer Lingus flight when he was heading on a Co Council delegation to the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island made national headlines and prompted him to issue a profuse written apology. In 2015 he was one of a number of Irish councillors subjected to an RTÉ Prime Time investigates probe which saw him secretly filmed in conversation with a supposed representative of a foreign investment firm seeking assistance with planning permissions…
