End of an era for one of the most well-known political family names in Thurles

The 2024 election is a poignant one for one of Thurles’s outgoing councillors. 

Seamus Hanafin told TipperaryLive that while he is ready to hang up his councillor’s hat, it is the end of an era for him and his family. 

“It’s the first time in 74 years that there has been no Hanafin elected in Thurles.

“Yesterday, I found to be a very strange day, not that I have any regret or sense of loss or anything like that, but a sense of nostalgia. I was thinking back to when my father was elected in 1950 and my uncle Des followed him, and then my late aunt Binky, and then my cousin John and myself.

It’s a big part of our family history and a big part of our family story, and I will certainly miss all this, and I enjoy all this. I enjoy the count, and I enjoy the buzz and I really enjoyed my time in the council, but I’m ready to finish,” said Mr Hanafin. 

Mr Hanafin said it has been a “privilege and an honour” to represent Thurles over the past 20 years.

He was co-opted onto the former North Tipperary County Council in 2003 and topped the polls in the election, the following year.

In May last year, he announced he would not contest the 2024 local election. 

“Just to thank all the people who've supported me down the years. The people who have voted for me, who and the people who have gone out and campaigned for me. My colleagues in the Fianna Fail party, I feel very proud to be a member of Fianna Fail and the people of the town who have come out and supported me election after election. To them, I am very grateful. 

“It’s a great privilege and a great honour to be elected, and I’ve always considered myself privileged to be elected. As I say I enjoyed it, and I hope I left some mark there.”