“Be sound” – that’s what newly elected Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Damian Boylan has promised will define his term of office as Cork’s First Citizen.
“Every Cork person understands exactly what ‘be sound’ means – you won’t find it in any policy document. You won’t hear it in many boardrooms. But you will hear it every day across our city,” said Boylan (51), a Fine Gael councillor who succeeds Fianna Fáil Cllr Fergal Dennehy.
“Be decent. Be kind. Be fair. Look out for one another. Give somebody a hand when they need it. Show patience when it would be easier to show anger. Treat people with respect even when you disagree with them.
“It sounds simple because it is simple. Yet I believe it is one of the most powerful ideas we possess – not a slogan, not a campaign, a way of living, a reminder that every one of us has the ability to make life better for somebody else. ”
RM Block
Boylan, who represents the Cork North West Ward on Cork City Council, was first elected to Cork County Council for the Blarney-Macroom Electoral Area in 2014, but switched to the city council when the city boundary expanded and was first elected to Cork City Council in 2019.
Boylan defeated Sinn Féin’s Cllr Fiona Kerins by 19 votes to eight with one abstention for the mayoralty following a pact agreement between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens and Labour which sees the mayoralty rotate between the four parties.
A native of Cork city who attended the North Monastery school, Boylan lives in Blarney and is married to Brenda and has two school going children, Simon and Kate. He said it was a “tremendous honour and a deeply humbling experience” to be elected Cork’s First Citizen.
