Adrian Kavanagh, 25th September 2014

Now that the new European Election constituency boundaries have been decided on, in this post, I will be detailing the names of the candidates for next year’s European Elections contests, by constituency. As new candidates are confirmed between now and the election itself, I will be updating this post to include their names.

Dublin constituency (3 Seats):

Fine Gael: Brian Hayes

Fianna Fail: Mary Fitzpatrick

Sinn Fein: Lynn Boylan (Lynn Ní Bhaoigheallain)

Labour Party: Emer Costello

Green Party: Eamon Ryan

Socialist Party/Anti Austerity Alliance: Paul Murphy

People Before Profit Alliance: Brid Smith

Direct Democracy Ireland: Tom Darcy, Raymond Patrick Whitehead

Fis Nua: Damon Matthew Wise

Others: Nessa Childers, Jim Tallon

In Dublin, five of the twelve candidates (41.7%) contesting this constituency are female and seven (58.3%) are male.

Not surprisingly, most of the candidates in this constituency are based in the Dublin region, with the exceptions of Tallon (Wicklow) and Wise (Clare). Three of the Dublin-based candidates have bases/addresses on the North side of the City, while the other seven candidates have bases/addresses on the South side of the City.

None of these candidates contested the Dublin constituency at the last European elections in 2009, although Neasa Childers did contest (and win a seat in) these elections in the old East constituency, as also did Jim Tallon.

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Midlands-North-West constituency (4 Seats):

Fine Gael: Mairead McGuinness, Jim Higgins

Fianna Fail: Pat The Cope Gallagher, Thomas Byrne

Sinn Fein:  Matt Carthy

Labour Party: Lorraine Higgins

Green Party:  Mark Dearey

Direct Democracy Ireland: Ben Gilroy

Fis Nua: Cordelia Níc Fhearraigh 

Others: Marian Harkin, Ronan Mullen, Mark Fitzsimons, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, TJ Fay

In Midlands-North-West, four of the fourteen candidates (28.6%) contesting this constituency are female and ten (71.4%) are male. Only five of these candidates – Byrne, McGuinness and Gilroy (all Meath) as well as Dearey and Fitzsimons (both Louth) – are based in Leinster (and all of these are based in North Leinster, with no Midlands or Kildare-based candidates), while the other nine candidates are based in Connacht-Ulster – Fay, Carthy, Gallagher and Nic Fhearraigh in Ulster and Harkin, L Higgins, J Higgins, Flanagan and Mullen in Connacht.

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South constituency (4 Seats):

Fine Gael: Deirdre Clune, Sean Kelly, Simon Harris

Fianna Fail: Brian Crowley, Kieran Hartley

Sinn Fein: Liadh Ni Riada

Labour Party: Phil Prendergast

Green Party: Grace O’Sullivan

Direct Democracy Ireland: Jan Van De Ven

Fis Nua: Donal O’Riordan

Catholic Democrats (The National Party): Thereasa Heaney

Others: Diarmuid O’Flynn, Jillian Godsil, Richard Cahill, Philip O’Sullivan 

In South, nine of the candidates selected/declared (60.0%) are male and six of the candidates (40.0%) are female. Only three of these fifteen candidates – Godsil, Harris and Van De Ven – are based in south Leinster (and all three of them are based in Wicklow County), while the other twelve candidates are based in Munster. Six of the Munster candidates have bases/addresses in Cork.

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Forty one candidates have been confirmed as European Elections candidates. In all, across the three different European Elections constituencies fifteen of the candidates (36.6%) are female and twenty six (63.4%) are male. Ten candidates have bases/addresses in the Dublin region, while thirteen have bases/addresses in Munster, nine have bases/addresses in Connacht-Ulster and nine have bases/addresses in Leinster (with no candidates from the western Leinster counties of Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Kildare, Carlow and Kilkenny, as well as Wexford).