Whether you have ever considered running for local election in County Mayo or simply want to find out more about how politics is organised in Ireland and how Mayo County Council works, then a free online course for women from could be just the answer.
Beginning on Thursday 7th November and finishing Thursday, 14th November, a free online (Zoom) course entitled ‘An Introduction to Politics’ aims to demystify politics for women and encourage them to engage in electoral politics. The free online classes are for women who wants to start to build up a bit of knowledge about politics, the functions of Mayo County Council and the day-to-day job of a county councillor. There will be two classes on each of the Thursdays, providing a choice of a morning class starting at 10am until 11:30am or an evening class starting at 8:00pm until 9:30pm.
Martina Hughes, Head of Corporate Development & Communications welcomed the funding made available to Mayo County Council through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to deliver this programme and outlined that the aim of the programme is “to work towards increasing the number of women in local politics and to encourage more women from diverse backgrounds to participate in Local Government, to the greatest extent possible and to realise the Council’s ambition of a more diverse representation of candidates in Mayo. ”
Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager for See Her Elected explained: “We want to see more women being elected to Mayo County Council. Only 3 of the 30 county councillors in Mayo are women, making it one of the lowest in the country in terms of female representation. In fact, there have only been 12 women in total ever elected to Mayo County Council since Nellie Robinson was elected back in 1967. Women’s perspective and their valuable expertise is largely absent from decision-making over the last 100 years.”
It is commendable that Mayo County Council, recognising the low number of women on the Council are laying the groundwork to do something about it with these classes as a starting point. Important too is the fact that Mayo County Council recognises that because women undertake most of the care work within families, it can be hard to juggle everything. For that reason, they have organised for the same class to be run at 10am and again at 8pm to try and offer some flexibility for women wishing to attend.
The first class on 7th November explains how politics is organised in Ireland and covers Presidential, General and Seanad elections and explains what each arm of government has the power to do and how they interact with each other. Voting and Mayo’s Public Participation Network will also be discussed. The second class on Thursday 14th November is about local politics, with an examination of local elections, what Mayo County Council has responsibility for, how functions are split between the people who work there and those we elect onto the Council and what the job involves.
The online classes are on Thursday 7th November and Thursday 14th November. There are two ways to register. You can register via Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/see-her-elected-30519632360 or simply send an email to corporatedev@mayococo.ie stating whether you wish to attend the morning (10am) or evening (8pm) class.
It is intended that further in-person workshops will take place across Mayo in 2025.
Also planned for early 2025 are free screenings of the film about Ireland’s first female president, and Mayo’s own Mary Robinson. ‘MRS ROBINSON’ tells Mary’s story, in her own words, for the very first time and plans are underway to have local showings in arts centres across the county and details will be available shortly from Mayo County Council.
