AFTER 18 years serving the people of Erne West, Cllr Bernice Swift has announced she will not be seeking election in this May’s local elections.
Cllr Swift, who was first elected in 2005, was due to announcement her retirement from local government at last night’s April Council meeting, stating it was now “time for me to do something new.”
“I am going to embrace a new phase of life, working 9-5, with the gratitude of being healthy, fit and well to do so and I thank God for all my blessings into my life’s next chapter, and so, the new journey begins for me,” she said.
Cllr Swift, who first began as a Sinn Fein councillor but left the party soon after her first election due to a policy disagreement, was the only female independent ever to be elected to Fermanagh Council, and the first female independent elected to the amalgamated Fermanagh and Omagh Council.
She said it had been “quite the accomplishment and I did it all with the vigour and tenacity that I possess.”
“This period of time 2005-2023 as an elected representative has been one massive chapter of my life and it’s actually been my longest-serving role in one place; and I now take my active energy to a new place,” she said.
“I like to think during my tenure that I spearheaded a lot of good ideas and trail-blazed lots of significant campaigns and very meaningful quests that have made a difference to the lives of my constituents”
For more on this story see next week’s Fermanagh Herald.
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