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Finance Minister Michael McGrath (left) and his brother Councillor Seamus McGrath. Alamy Stock Photo

Fianna Fáil set to dominate Cork City Council after winning almost a third of the seats

The Labour Party is the other big winner after going from one seat to three in this weekend’s election.

NOW THAT THE dust has settled and the votes are counted, let’s take a look at the makeup of Cork City Council, where there were 31 seats up for grabs. 

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had been the major players following the 2019 local elections, holding eight and seven seats respectively.

This time, Fianna Fáil have come out on top overall with a total of nine candidates elected to the Council, an increase of one seat compared to 2019. Fine Gael came second with five seats, a drop from the seven it held last time round. Both parties are represented in all five wards. 

The Labour Party has significantly improved its representation on the Council, going from one seat to three, while the Social Democrats won their first seat on the Council.

Sinn Féin won four seats (no change) while the Green Party went from four to three.

People Before Profit and the Workers’ Party each secured one seat while another four went to independents. 

According to Fianna Fáil’s Colm Kelleher, who topped the poll, voters in Cork City were receptive to the party’s messaging on housing, which was that the Council had made significant progress in building new social houses.

Another factor was that the Council’s budget has increased and that has helped with services across the board. 

It’s still early days in terms of establishing the new power dynamics among the parties on the Council but Fianna Fáil will certainly be in a strong negotiating position as the dominant party when it comes to forming a majority (16 of the 31 seats). 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of how the parties did across the five different wards.

Cork City North East (6 seats)

The North East ward has a mixture of different parties with no party represented more than once. 

Labour’s John Maher was re-elected, as were independent Ken O’Flynn, Fine Gael’s Joe Kavanagh, the Workers’ Party’s Ted Tynan and Oliver Moran of the Green Party.

Margaret McDonnell of Fianna Fáil is the newcomer among the bunch. 

Cork City North West (6 seats)

As was the case in the North East, incumbents secured re-election for the most part.

Damian Boylan of Fine Gael, along with Tony Fitzgerald and John Sheehan of Fianna Fáil all retained their seats, as did Sinn Féin councillors Kenneth Collins and Michelle Gould.

Brian McCarthy of People Before Profit-Solidarity is the fresh face on the council in the North West.

Cork City South Central (6 seats)

finance-minister-michael-mcgrath-left-and-his-brother-councillor-seamus-mcgrath-right-at-cork-city-hall-in-cork-ireland-during-the-count-for-the-local-and-european-picture-date-saturday-june-8 Finance Minister Michael McGrath (left) and his brother Councillor Seamus McGrath. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Incumbents were the main winners again in the South Central area. 

Social Democrat Pádraig Rice is the newcomer and the only member of his party to win a seat on the Council overall after it had zero seats in the last term.  

Shane O’Callaghan of Fine Gael, Seán Martin of Fianna Fáil, Dan Boyle of the Green Party, independent Paudie Dineen and Sinn Féin’s Fiona Kerins all won re-election this weekend.

Cork City South East (6 seats): 

There are two new councillors in the South East area – Labour’s Peter Horgan and the Green Party’s Honore Kamegni.

Kammegni’s election is effectively a gain for the Greens in the South East because while they did get Lorna Bogue elected in 2019, she switched to Rabharta Glas and has run for a seat in the EU Parliament.

Terry Shannon and Mary Rose Desmond of Fianna Fáil were both re-elected, as were independent Kieran McCarthy and Des Cahill of Fine Gael.

Cork City South West (7 seats)

Of the seven seats in the South West area, Fianna Fáil have won three, through Fergal Dennehy and Colm Kelleher who were both re-elected and newcomer Terry Coleman. 

Garret Kelleher of Fine Gael retained his seat. 

Independent Albert Deasy, Sinn Féin’s Joe Lynch and Labour’s Laura Harmon are the other new faces on the Council in the South West.

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8 Comments
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    Mute David Field
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:24 PM

    Meaningless Manifestos. Meaningless Slogans. Meaningless Promsises.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:09 PM

    @David Field: True, but in terms of the wording, SF are making the most sense

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    Mute Dave Callaghan
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:18 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: @Thesaltyurchin: ”Sinn Féin’s manifesto makes no mention of the migration system.”

    They’re not making much sense on the issue of immigration, which affects nearly every other issue people worry about.

    Immigration is the biggest issue for most people according to a recent Irish Independent poll.

    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/elections-2024/local-election/elections-2024-poll-what-do-you-believe-is-the-main-issue-in-this-local-election/a455437151.html

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    Mute James Hayes
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    Jun 6th 2024, 7:08 PM

    @Dave Callaghan: it’s all false promises. Why would you vote for any major party, they promises the stars, but yet it’s cloudy 99% of the time. We need a change, but who do you pick. As a person in the 50s I’ve seen frist hand what FFG has turned this country into. I’m not voting SF either,they talked the talk, but aren’t willing to walk the walk.

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    Mute Stuart Keogh
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:34 PM

    Fianna fails could not be more vague or even half hearted. Looks like somebody literally phoned that in or wrote it on a post-it note

    122
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    Mute JagTune
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:32 PM

    Ireland is the only country in Europe that allows asylum seekers to vote in local and European elections. An asylum seeker can register to vote without a passport or ID.
    Department of Justice figures from last year confirm that 85% of asylum seekers entered Ireland last year without passport or ID. They can now vote in our elections.
    Establishment parties are relying on the vote of asylum seekers as they know the majority of Irish people have turned against them. Asylum seekers and economic migrants have been granted the power to shape the future of the Irish political system.
    This is an extremely sinister move by our government and is an attack on our democracy.

    115
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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:45 PM

    @JagTune: Great little rant about sinster moves by the government to attack our democracy.

    The problem is that we actually had a referendum in 1999 on this, where the people of Ireland had the democratic right to decide on this issue, and 77.83% of us voted in favour of it.

    Of course, this predated the rise of right-wing hysteria, it was back when we all had hope for the future, could make ends meet and didn’t look for an easy target to blame all the problems of the country on and instead held politicians to account, to actually sort out the problems themselves, rather than just looking for a scapegoat to blame them on..

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    Mute Kevin Kerr
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    Jun 6th 2024, 4:36 PM

    @JagTune: Asylum seekers can not vote in European elections in Ireland. Further, asylum seekers can not apply for asylum without proving their identity, so there are no asylum seekers who’s identity has not been established voting in local elections in Ireland. Your post stinks of mis-truths and prejudice

    35
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    Mute Eddie Garvey
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:30 PM

    Problem is they rarely deliver, they often knowingly lie, they are primarily driven by retaining their income and claiming as many expenses as possible and finally the guy in all councils with the most power is not elected so what’s the point.

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    Mute Fidgenti
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:38 PM

    FG are promising to fix all the things they broke, like some thug telling his beaten up wife that he won’t do it again, that it’ll be different from now on and that he really loves and cares deeply for. her.
    Time to stop feeding the hand that bites us.

    154
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    Mute Sean Money
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:44 PM

    @Fidgenti: they cannot be smacking up the women now

    9
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    Mute John Dennehy
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:39 PM

    What Fianna Fáil really meant to say was – underdelivering for Fine Gael in the past, underdelivering for Fine Gael in the future. Fine Gael really meant to say working with Fianna Fáil, working for Fianna Fáil. FG and FF should officially join forces and become one party. There is zero difference between them now, and they have been great bedfellows in government in destroying the country. A vote for FG is a vote for FF and vice versa.

    89
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    Mute N D K
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:48 PM

    Should all these things not have been done years ago, what have they all been doing for years gone bye

    70
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    Mute Sean Money
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:41 PM

    Who will get rid of the usc? They will get my vote

    62
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    Mute P. J.
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:46 PM

    @Sean Money:
    None of them so, and if any candidate in a local election tells you they can, you have found the biggest liar of them all

    42
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    Mute Sean Money
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:54 PM

    @P. J.: it makes me sad

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:57 PM

    @P. J.: What about any of the nazi people and far rights, surely they would?

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    Mute James Moylan
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:55 PM

    There’s actual people out there that believe that waffle

    51
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    Mute honey badger
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:52 PM

    Just make sure you do vote. Don’t take anything for granted.

    42
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    Mute Lydia Mcloughlin
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:55 PM

    Same old, same old … roll in 10 years, rinse, repeat.

    37
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    Mute M G
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:43 PM

    Only party getting my Vote is the ones going to stop our country getting invaded .

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    Mute nollaig o cellaigh
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:39 PM

    Hooray everything will be fixed finally!!!!

    33
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    Mute Kush OMeara
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:12 PM

    When Palestine becomes more important than Portlaise – you know parties have no real agenda except jumping on trends. SF’s biggest revelation this time around has been them cosying up and bending over backwards with the Islamists.

    43
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    Mute Kush OMeara
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    Jun 6th 2024, 5:13 PM

    @DCQ: Yeah, that’s why they don’t get my vote this time. Independents it will be.

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    Mute Kevin Kerr
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    Jun 6th 2024, 6:07 PM

    @Kush OMeara: Is that you Mattie?

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    Mute J Cronin
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:30 PM

    There’s no need for The Journal to read it to us and there’s no need for anyone else to read it either because all we’ll read is spoof.

    34
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    Mute Nodon
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:27 PM

    So FF are going to mandate gender targets for board appointments in local authorities. Well they have just lost one vote with that silly proposal and hopefully will lose more if they continue down the road of gender (and other) quotas.

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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:57 PM

    Manifiestos are spoofery. That said, despite polls making a lot of presumptions on the alleged fall in support for Sinn Fein, I think a lot of younger voters 18-34 will probably vote for them in the impending elections and a future general election.

    Simply because they have no historic baggage about them, attacks on Sinn Fein from FFFG about being the past political wing of the IRA, means as much to them as someone talking about FFFG actions during the civil war, because they didn’t live through any of it, to them its all just boring history.

    I personally doubt that Sinn Fein in government will deliver on any of the things they promise in opposition, and suspect that they will claim they need at least two terms to fix the mess left to them, but I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

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    Mute Nodon
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:22 PM

    @Dvsespaña: It’s not the past IRA history that is causing the drop in support for SF. It’s their constant flip flopping on all major issues so no one knows where they stand on anything.

    39
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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:27 PM

    @Nodon: Congratulations on arguing against a point and claim that I didn’t make..

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    Mute P. J.
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:43 PM

    @Ulysses 31:
    Thankfully there is so many candidates of the hard right variety that their support will be spread thin, very few, if any will be elected and the majority of people will be able to ignore them.

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    Mute Jack Hayes
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:52 PM

    @Ulysses 31: Nonsense.

    17
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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:12 PM

    @Ulysses 31: It begins with we need to stop and repatriate international protection applicants, then all of a sudden it’s we need to stop unlimited economic migrants because they are the problem, then before you know it, it’s ordinary citizens being stopped in the street by psychopathic bureaucrats and told their papers are not in order, and them sending anyone that disagrees to re-education camps…

    Then eventually, people begin to wonder as they have at various points throughout history, how and when exactly did we allow these vicious lunatics to take control?

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    Mute Nodon
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:19 PM

    @P. J.: if people use their transfers properly their vote will consolidate. Hopefully they will do and the results will be a better reflection of public opinion.

    21
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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:16 PM

    @Ulysses 31: There lies the problem, because there isn’t a right-wing lite, or a limited form of fascism. It is like every other ideology, a self perpetuating bureaucracy that compounds itself.

    In Germany in the 1930′s, Hitler was saying to voters that they needed to help him rebuild Germany for Germans.

    The Germany that was destroyed physically and financially by losing WW1 and being forced to pay reparations, he told them that with their support in voting for his national socialist party he would take back control of Germany and regain its former glory…

    6
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    Mute Dvsespaña
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:17 PM

    On the surface, this appealed to a lot of ordinary German people that were struggling to make ends meet, categorise people by race or ethnicity, expel from Germany everyone not aryan German, and seize the assets and businesses of foreigners

    Hitler kept the crazy talk about genocide, slaughtering the Jews, the disabled, homosexuals, gypsies and anyone not aryan German, to his inner circle with whom he had tried to overthrow the German government through an earlier insurrection in 1923, at least he did until they finally held the reins of power, by then it was too late and the die was cast and the rest is history…

    6
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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:04 PM

    Fine Gael are going to place bees on the roof of local authority buildings where practical.
    Do they mean hives? And presumably that’s only possible on flat roofs. And they’d need trained Bee keepers. And a risk assessment cos people might get stung.
    Don’t think it’s practical.
    But I could be wrong.

    19
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    Mute Eric Gaffney
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:38 PM

    We read the manifestos so you dont.

    16
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    Mute Sean Stevenson
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    Jun 6th 2024, 5:58 PM

    Not one mention of crime or antisocial behaviour. HOW on earth are local councillors more concerned about Palestine, a country over which a local councillor will have absolutely ZERO power to help or influence outside of virtue signalling by waving a flag around outside city hall, than the absolute state of our inner cities when it comes to open drug dealing, antisocial behaviour and general crime. This is an absolute circus.

    20
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    Mute William O leary
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    Jun 6th 2024, 8:39 PM

    can we have our country back please ..that’s all

    16
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    Mute Camio 55
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    Jun 6th 2024, 1:39 PM

    Not easy to predict results on this occasion .

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    Mute John Reynolds
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    Jun 6th 2024, 3:17 PM

    Seems that they are all striving to do these things nothing concrete so basically bs

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    Mute Peter McCormack
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    Jun 6th 2024, 9:42 PM

    Which party should I vote for to control migration into our country.
    SF don’t care.
    Ff and FG want us to take migrants that arrived illegally from other countries.
    Which party to vote for in the EU elections..

    8
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    Mute SV3tN8M4
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    Jun 6th 2024, 10:29 PM

    The Coalition parties have done massive damage to Democracy in Ireland, they have failed the Irish people who have lost all trust in all arms of the State & no longer swallow the lies & false promises. They brand those who question their actions as Far Right, deflecting from their failures, as they know that things are about to change drastically in Ireland. They must solely take responsibility for this & why people are seeking extremes. The Opposition are no better, in fact nobody sees anybody in Dail Eirinn as leaders or providing leadership. The fact is, it’s now too late for the Coalition parties, the days of people giving them another chance is gone. The Referendums were a warning & the vote went unheeded by our Political Classes, too late now.

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:02 PM

    Ireland’s maritime climate is one topic among many within the umbrella of the Earth science of climate, just as geology and biology cover many topics within their respective research areas.

    The idea of making climate one thing, in this case, long-term weather to suit computer modelling, reflects poorly on society, from politicians to the electorate.

    An element of social politics would be to curtail the influence of scientific method modelling. Because that subculture cannot be inspirational, of necessity, it must be hysterical and dire, so a creative and productive society does not need it.

    4
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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Jun 6th 2024, 2:15 PM

    @Gerald Kelleher: Doesn’t really matter if one believes or not. There are ways to heat your house, some of them make sense and some don’t. The path of reason should be the journey we’re on, but people are terrified of change (the only certainty apart from death) and so are incapable moving past almost any societal road block. In Ireland its evident throughout our society, with nearly all of our infrastructures suffering generational neglect.

    2
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