Adrian Kavanagh,  First posted 2nd July 2013 with updates as new candidate nominations announced 

The fifth of my rolling blog posts in which I details the latest information as to candidate selections relating to the different political parties and grouping and/or candidate declarations (as in the case of the non-party grouping). The rule of thumb here is that I will add party candidates only after they have been officially selected to run for the party  at a selection convention or by some other means of candidate selection. The post will focus on non-party/independent candidates.Back in Summer 2013, the non-party/independents grouping accounted for one hundred and thirty City/County Councillors, as well as for one hundred and sixty two Borough/Town Councillors (thirty three of whom were also serving as County Councillors) meaning that there were two hundred and sixty different non-party local elected representatives in the state at that time. Due to various “selection defections” over the following months, by May 2014 the number of Independent/Non-Party City/County Councillors had climbed to one hundred and forty three and the number of Independent/Non-Party Borough/Town Councillors had climbed to one hundred and eighty two. Non party/independent candidates now form the second largest grouping on Borough and Town Councils after Fine Gael, having overtaken Fianna Fail in recent months due to the aforementioned “selection defections” to the independent ranks from Fianna Fail, Labour and Fine Gael.

Five hundred and eighty three non-party/independent candidates (or rather candidacies) will be contesting the 2014 Local (City and County Council) Elections. This marks a very significant increase on the three hundred and ninety nine candidates who contested the 2009 Local (City and County Council) Elections.

Males account for four hundred and ninety two of these non-party, independent or community candidates and female candidates account for ninety one (15.6%) of these, as is evident from the list below.

Eight of the candidates listed below – Sharon Keogan (Laytown-Bettystown and Ashbourne), Christian Hayden (Crumlin-Kimmage and Pembroke-South Dock), Dermot Casey (Mulhuddart and Castleknock), Pat Finnerty (Carlow and Muinebeag), Jimmy O’Shaughnessy (Arklow and Wicklow), Brian Fagan (Mullingar-Coole and Mullingar-Kilbeggan), Angela Maher  (Mullingar-Coole and Mullingar-Kilbeggan) and Eamonn O’Boyle (Dundalk-Carlingford and Dundalk South) – are contesting two electoral areas. Lech Szczeciński (Howth-Malahide, Swords and Crumlin-Kimmage) is contesting three electoral areas in Dublin (Howth-Malahide, Swords and Crumlin-Kimmage), while Charlie Keddy is contesting each one of the five electoral areas in Wicklow County.

A group of one hundred and seventy seven incumbents account for 30.6% of this grouping: one hundred and twenty one of the candidates are currently serving on City/County Councils (20.9%) while another fifty six candidates are non-dual mandate Town Councillors (twenty two of the non-party/independent candidates serve both on a County Council and a Borough/Town Council).

A number of the non-party/independent/community candidates listed here (and highlighted by an asterisk/*) are members of the Independents’ Network, a group that also includes five Dail deputies (Catherine Murphy, John Halligan, Thomas Pringle, Maureen O’Sullivan and Finian McGrath) and one member of the European Parliament/European Elections candidate (Marian Harkin). At present thirty five local election candidates would be members of this group (although Lech Szczeciński is contesting three different electoral areas) – thirty two are male and five are female (13.5%). Ten members of this group of candidates are currently elected local representatives (27.0%) – eight are members of City/County Councils and three are members of a Borough/Town Council (two are stand-alone Town Councillors while another one serves both on a County and a Borough/Town Council). A number of candidates, most of whom are based in Cork (but also including candidates based in Dublin, Limerick and Monaghan) are associated with The People’s Convention grouping, having signed “The People’s Contract”, and are referred to below as People’s Candidates. The candidates listed as People’s Candidates/namely independent candidates associated with The People’s Convention in the list below accounted for twenty candidates (three are female – 15.0%). A number of other non-party/independent candidates also identify themselves as members of other, often local to one specific county or local authority, groupings, such as the South Kerry Independent Alliance, Independents for Equality, the (Roscommon) Hospital Alliance Committee, Tus Nua and Kildare Action for Change.

The non party/independent candidates who are contesting these elections include the following people (Note that, as in the other similar posts, the links provided here are to posts/newspaper reports offering “evidence” of their candidatures and are not necessarily linking to candidate websites):

I will be adding to this list as and when I come across further declarations of intentions to contest these elections on the part of other non-party candidates. This cohort of candidates often tends to be the hardest to glean information on, so this list may not be as up to date/accurate as the similar posts for the different parties.

Michael Daly had declared his intention to contest the Limerick City North electoral area, but sadly he passed away on 16th February 2014. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

A number of people has declared their intention to contest the local elections as independent/non party candidates (and had been included on this list), but later withdrew/did not officially nominate themselves as candidates. These include John Stapleton (Kilkenny City West), James Coughlan (West Clare), John Wilson (Cavan-Belturbet), John Corrigan (West Mayo), Jerry Mullally (Kanturk-Mallow), Gerry McInerney (Nenagh), Billy Clancy and Donal O’Regan (Templemore-Thurles), Krzysztof Luszczki (Limerick City), Gerry O’Connor (Ballymote-Tubbercurry), Sean McSharry (Manorhamilton), Colm McNamee (Athy), Pat Clear (Naas) and Tommy Stokes (Granard). Brian Merry (Killiney-Shankill) and Patrick Martin Smith (Drogheda) withdrew (before the closing date for doing so (12pm on Tuesday 6th May), after having initially been on the list of officially nominated candidates. Regina Walsh was selected to contest Cork City South East for The People’s Convention but has since withdrawn. Joe Terry was selected to contest Blarney-Macrooom for The People’s Convention but has since withdrawn. Pat O’Shea was selected to contest Cork City North West for The People’s Convention but has since separated from the group and is now to contest this electoral area as a non-party/independent/community candidate. Joe Terry was selected to contest Blarney-Macroom for The People’s Convention but has since withdrawn. Donal Murphy was selected to contest Cork City North West for The People’s Convention but has withdrawn.

Thanks to the folks at Irish Election Literature, Joe Barrett, Darragh Butler, David O’Leary, William Winters, Padraig Corkery, Joe Leogue, Claire Gallagher, Fiachra Ó Céilleachair, John Keith, The Clare Courier, Claire Noble, Lizzie Munnelly, Jonathan Davey, Stephen Spillane, Arthur Griffin, Patrick Conboy, Alex Petkov, Joe Terry, Siobhan H, Niamh McGowan, Tom Nolan, Cillian Fleming, Irene Flynn, Maria Daly, David Flynn, Evan Murphy, Gavan Reilly, Ciaran McKenna, Stephanie Keating, Ciaran O’Toole, Gary Gannon, Paul Leahy, Gearoid Dardis, James Campbell, Francis Timmons, Frank Gibbons, Eoin Madden, Alan Hynes, Alan Hayes, Leo Kavanagh, Diarmaid O Cadhla, Jeff Rudd, Paud O’Keeffe, Keith Henry, Niamh McGowan, Roderic O’Gorman, Philip Slattery, Frances Byrne, Patrick Dunne, John McGahon, Oliver Morgan, Lorraine O’Connor, James Doherty, Monica Melay, Gavin Grace, Caoimhin O Hailpin, Cathal Foley, Daithi, Darren Ryan, the Clonmel Online website, DJ Moore, Mel Casserly, Keith Ellis, Deirdre Kelly, Leo Kavanagh, Seamus Kirwan, Caitriona Lawlor, Joe Conway, Miriam Murphy, Mary Roche, Joe Corbett, Gavin Nugent, the Politics in Kerry blog and all others who have passed on candidate details relating to this category.