Michael Fahy (1951 – 2 April 2019
) was an Irish farmer, and a
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland.
Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...
and sometime
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
member of
Galway County Council
Galway County Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for ho ...
.
From
Ardrahan and first elected to the council
in 1979,
he resigned from Fianna Fáil in 2004 when under investigation for
misappropriation of funds
In law, misappropriation is the unauthorized use of another's name, likeness, identity, property, discoveries, inventions, etc. without that person's permission, resulting in harm to that person.
Another use of the word refers to intentional ...
from the council.
He served a prison sentence for this in 2007,
but his conviction was overturned in 2011.
He rejoined Fianna Fáil in 2018.
Early career
Fahy owned a 70-acre farm and prior to his trial worked as a salesman for
New Ireland Assurance.
He was appointed a
Peace Commissioner in 1978, and was on the
visiting committee of Limerick Prison until 2004. He ran in
Galway West as an independent in the
1987 general election, but later rejoined Fianna Fáil.
In the
2004 local elections, Fahy was criticised for using thousands of prepaid
Oireachtas
The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...
envelopes to write to voters. He said "I wanted to show I had the support of the Oireachtas members and if I hadn't done it like the other candidates, it would seem like I didn't have the same clout." The judge at his 2007 trial alluded to Fahy's "quite extensive property assets of great value";
his 2010 councillor's
declaration of interests lists land at Cregclare, Ardrahan, and Caherduff.
"Stroke" nickname
Fahy acquired the nickname "Stroke" (Irish slang for a sly political manoeuvre
) in the 1970s from a local journalist after he convinced the Fianna Fáil national executive to add his name to the local election ticket when the local party had left it out.
An advertisement in the ''
Galway Advertiser
The ''Galway Advertiser'' is a free newspaper distributed throughout Galway city and county each Thursday.
History
The ''Galway Advertiser'' was founded in 1970 by Ronnie O'Gorman, with the first edition published on 16 April 1970. O'Gorman edi ...
'' during his 1987 election campaign has the headline ''The "Stroke" For Galway West''.
In quashing his 2007 conviction for misappropriation, Justice Finnegan noted "The name by which the applicant is popularly known and which it is likely was known to some at least of a Galway jury could well exacerbate the prejudice having regard to the nature of the offences with which the applicant is charged."
After the success of his 2011 appeal, Fahy's solicitor released a statement:
Misappropriation conviction
In 2002–03, a road beside Fahy's farm was being widened, using funds allocated from the Community Involvement Scheme.
A contractor erected 2,506 metres of fencing on Fahy's farm.
Fahy later claimed in court that he had a
verbal agreement to supply an equivalent value of rubble from his farm for the roadworks.
[Fahy guilty on one of five charges](_blank)
RTÉ, 10 December 2008 The contractor was paid by the council in 2002 for an invoice of €7,055, and submitted another invoice in 2003 for €7,523.
After a council investigation, Fahy reimbursed the council for €7,055 and apologised for any embarrassment.
In March 2004, the Galway
county manager asked Fahy to pay €3,000 to charity;
he donated that sum to the Ardrahan
Lourdes Invalid Fund.
An ''
Irish Independent
The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...
'' journalist submitted a request for details under
freedom of information legislation
Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatis ...
, and a
Garda investigation was begun.
When news of this became public in September 2004, Fahy resigned from Fianna Fáil,
although local Fianna Fáil TD
Joe Callanan and councillor Michael Regan supported him at his trial.
In March 2007 at Galway
Circuit Criminal Court in
Loughrea
Loughrea ( ; ), is a town in County Galway, Ireland. It lies to the north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains and Lough Rea, the lake from which it takes its name. The town's cathedral, St Brendan's, dominates the urban sk ...
a jury took 2½ hours to find him guilty on seven counts:
* Obtaining by
false pretences contrary to section 2 of the Larceny Act 1916 as amended by the Larceny Act 1990
* Attempted
theft
Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...
contrary to section 4 of the
Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001
The Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 (No. 50 of 2001) updates and consolidates the law relating to dishonesty and fraud in Ireland.
The main sections of the statute include:
* Theft and Related Offences
*Making gain or caus ...
and common law (two counts)
* Attempting to make a gain or cause a loss by
deception
Deception is the act of convincing of one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the information does not. It is often done for personal gain or advantage.
Tort of ...
contrary to section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 and common law (two counts)
*
False accounting False accounting is a legal term for a type of fraud, considered a statutory offence in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
England and Wales
This offence is created by section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 which provides:
...
by production or making use of a document contrary to section 10(1)(c) of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 (two counts)
On 20 March 2007 he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment and fined €75,000.
The judge criticised Fahy for attempting to implicate other councillors and the fencing contractor in his actions.
Senator
Michael Kitt criticised the severity of the sentence. Fahy was given two weeks to get his affairs in order and make provision for his dependent mother.
In this time he was taken ill and received hospital treatment for heart problems, further delaying the start of his sentence. He also launched an appeal. He was taken from hospital to prison on 23 April 2007.
Fahy remained a county councillor. The judge had suggested he should be disqualified under subsection 13(1)(m)(i) of the
Local Government Act 2001
The Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37) was enacted by the Oireachtas on 21 July 2001 to reform local government in Ireland. Most of the provisions of the Act came into operation on 1 January 2002. The act was a restatement and amendment of pr ...
for "fraudulent or dishonest dealings affecting a local authority";
however section 13(2)(c) delays such disqualification pending appeals.
While section 18(4)(a) of the Local Government Act 2001 provides that councillors are deemed to have resigned if they fail to attend meetings for six months, section 18(4)(b)(ii) allows the council to make an exception where the absence was "in good faith for another reason
esides illness.
The council decided not to move against him pending his appeal. On the register of
panel electors for the
2007 Seanad election, his address was listed as "c/o Mr. Daniel J. Scannell, Governor,
Castlerea Prison, Harristown, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon"; he is believed to be the first person to vote from prison in the Seanad elections. Fahy received the full annual representative pay allowance of €16,600 for the year 2007, although his conference expenses were only €3,700, for conferences attended prior to his imprisonment.
Quashing of conviction and subsequent career
On 28 November 2007, the
Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that evidence that Fahy had claimed to have been offered €3.8m for a field was irrelevant and thus
inadmissible; and further that it was
prejudicial
Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived social group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that perso ...
as it did not note that the field had been inherited, and thus allowed the inference that "wealth apparently so disproportionate to his income and station in life was not acquired honestly."
The court quashed Fahy's conviction, released him on
bail
Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...
, and ordered a
retrial
A new trial or retrial is a recurrence of a court case. A new trial may potentially be ordered for some or all of the matters at issue in the original trial. Depending upon the rules of the jurisdiction and the decision of the court that ordered ...
.
[Retrial ordered in Galway Cllr fraud case](_blank)
RTÉ, 28 November 2007 Senator
Terry Leyden was quoted as "delighted" with the decision.
At the retrial, two charges were dropped; on 10 December 2008, Fahy was found not guilty on four charges and guilty on one charge of obtaining the use or benefit of €7,055 from Galway County Council by false pretences.
He was sentenced to time served of seven months, and fined €30,000.
He launched another appeal,
and on 31 May 2011 the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled his conviction was unsafe, with Justice
Adrian Hardiman saying "the evidence before the court was completely different from the case made by the State".
No retrial was ordered.
Fahy's mother Mai, a
Cumann na mBan veteran, died aged 99 on 23 December 2008.
Fahy was re-elected to Galway county council in the
2009 local elections, topping the poll in the Loughrea
local electoral area
A local electoral area (LEA; ) is an electoral area for elections to Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authorities in Ireland. All elections in the Republic of Ireland, elections use the single transferable vote. Republic of Ir ...
(LEA). In October 2009, a man was convicted of attempting to extort €5,000 from Fahy by claiming to have tapes of politicians planning to oust or murder Fahy. Fahy was
re-elected at the 2014 local elections to Galway county Council.
He said afterwards he was considering rejoining Fianna Fáil.
Fahy ran as an independent in
Galway East in the
2016 general election, receiving 5.2% of the first-preference vote to finish eighth of the ten candidates.
He rejoined Fianna Fáil in 2018, and at the time of his death had been selected to run for the party in
Gort
Gort ( or ) is a town of around 2,800 inhabitants in County Galway in the west of Ireland. Located near the border with County Clare, the town lies between the Burren and the Slieve Aughty and is served by the R458 road (Ireland), R458 and R460 ...
/
Kinvara
Kinvara or Kinvarra () is a sea port village in the southwest of County Galway, Ireland. It is located in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Kinvarradoorus in the north of the Barony (Ireland), barony of Kiltartan. Kinvarra is also ...
LEA in the
May 2019 local elections.
References
External links
Cllr Michael FahyGalway county council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahy, Michael
2019 deaths
Fianna Fáil politicians
Independent candidates in Dáil elections
20th-century Irish farmers
Members of Galway County Council
Politicians from County Galway
Prisoners and detainees of the Republic of Ireland
Irish politicians convicted of crimes
1951 births