Adrian Kavanagh, 26th February 2011
This blog will list the names, and party affiliations, of all the formally declared candidates whose ages fall in the 21-35 years age category – candidates whose ages fall in the 21-30 years category will be denoted by a * Please note that this is probably an incomplete list, in part due to fact that party selections are still ongoing but also due to difficulties in accessing age information. If you note any glaring absences, please feel free to comment!
Fianna Fail: Daithí Ó Donnabháin (Cork North-West)*, Michael McGrath TD (Cork South-Central), Cllr. Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North-East), Sen. Brian O’Domhnaill (Donegal South-West), Averil Power (Dublin North-East), Cllr. David McGuinness (Dublin West)*, Sen. James Carroll (Louth)*, Lisa Chambers (Mayo)*, Thomas Byrne TD (Meath East), Cllr. Shane Cassells (Meath West), Cllr. Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath)*, Ivan Connaughton (Roscommon-South Leitrim)* At least 12 candidates (16.0% of total FF candidates) – at least 6 candidates fall into the 21-30 years age cohort (8.0% of total FF candidates).
Fine Gael: Sen John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny), Joe Carey TD (Clare), Cllr. Pa O’Driscoll (Cork East)*, Lucinda Creighton TD (Dublin South East), Cllr. Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East)*, Cllr. Alan Farrell (Dublin North), Leo Varadkar TD (Dublin West), Cllr. Paul Connaughton (Galway East)*, Cllr. Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West), Cllr. Sean Kyne (Galway West), Cllr. Brendan Griffin (Kerry South)*, Cllr. Martin Heydon (Kildare South)*, Cllr. Liam Quinn (Laois-Offaly)*, Cllr. Patrick O’Donovan (Limerick), Cllr. Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath)*, Cllr. Catherine Yore (Meath West)*, Damien English (Meath West), Cllr. Simon Harris (Wicklow)*. 18 candidates (19.8% of total FG candidates) – 9 candidates fall into the 21-30 years age cohort (9.9% of total FG candidates).
Labour: Sen. Michael McCarthy (Cork South-West), Cllr. Aodhan O’Riordan (Dublin North Central), Cllr. John Lyons (Dublin North-West), Cllr. Henry Upton (Dublin South Central)*, Cllr. Patrick Nulty (Dublin West)*, Lorraine Higgins (Galway East), Cllr. Derek Nolan (Galway West)*, Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick), Cllr. James Heffernan (Limerick), Cllr. Ged Nash (Louth), Alan Kelly MEP (Tipperary North), Ciara Conway TC (Waterford)*. 12 candidates (17.7% of total Labour candidates) – 4 candidates fall into the 21-30 years age cohort (6.0% of total Labour candidates).
Sinn Fein: John Cassin TC (Carlow-Kilkenny)*, Kathleen Funchion TC (Carlow-Kilkenny)*, Kathryn Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan)*, Paul Hayes (Cork South West), Cllr. Padraig MacLochlainn (Donegal North East), Pearse Doherty TD (Donegal South West), Ruadhán Mac Aodháin (Dublin South-East)*, Sorcha Nic Cormaic (Dublin South), Martin Kelly (Kildare North), Paul Hogan TC (Longford-Westmeath)*, Cllr. David Cullinane (Waterford). 11 candidates at least (26.8% of total Sinn Fein candidates) – at least 5 candidates in 21-30 years age cohort; 12.2% of total Sinn Fein candidates)
Green Party: Darcy Lonergan (Cavan-Monaghan)*, Malachy Harty (Cork East)*, Roderic O’Gormain (Dublin West)*
United Left Alliance: Ann Foley (Cork North-West), Robert Connolly (Dublin Mid-West), Cian Prendiville (Limerick City)*
Independent and Other small parties/political groupings: David Murphy (Carlow-Kilkenny), John McGuirk NV (Cavan-Monaghan)*, Ann Cronin (Clare), Brian Markham (Clare)*, Padraig O’Sullivan NV (Cork North Central)*, David McCarthy (Cork South-Central), Ryan Stewart (Donegal North-East), Michael Loftus NV (Dublin North-West), Dylan Haskins (Dublin South-East)*, Mike Cubbard (Galway West)*, Clifford T Reid (Kildare North), Justin Collery (Waterford), Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow)
At least 33 candidates fall within the 21-30 years age cohort and at least 68 candidates fall within the 21-35 years age cohort (at least 11.7% of total number of candidates). Female candidates account for 19.7% of this group.
The regions in the East tend to have a lower than average level of younger candidates; candidates aged between 21 and 35 account for 9.7% of the Dublin candidates and 11.3% of the (Rest of) Leinster candidates, as against 12.7% of candidates in Munster and 13.7% of candidates in Connacht-Ulster.
Update: The successful candidates in this age cohort included:
Fianna Fail: Michael McGrath TD (Cork South-Central), Cllr. Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North-East), Cllr. Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath)* 3 candidates (15.0% of the successful FF candidates)
Fine Gael: Sen John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny), Joe Carey TD (Clare), Lucinda Creighton TD (Dublin South East), Cllr. Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East)*, Cllr. Alan Farrell (Dublin North), Leo Varadkar TD (Dublin West), Cllr. Paul Connaughton (Galway East)*, Cllr. Sean Kyne (Galway West), Cllr. Brendan Griffin (Kerry South)*, Cllr. Martin Heydon (Kildare South)*, Cllr. Patrick O’Donovan (Limerick), Damien English (Meath West), Cllr. Simon Harris (Wicklow)*. 13 candidates (17.1% of the successful FG candidates)
Labour: Sen. Michael McCarthy (Cork South-West), Cllr. Aodhan O’Riordan (Dublin North Central), Cllr. John Lyons (Dublin North-West), Cllr. Derek Nolan (Galway West)*, Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick), Cllr. Ged Nash (Louth), Alan Kelly MEP (Tipperary North), Ciara Conway TC (Waterford)*. 8 candidates (21.6% of the successful Labour candidates) – one other candidate in this group – Patrick Nulty – won a Dail seat some months later in the Dublin West by-election, but subsequently left the party some weeks later and resigned the seat in 2014
Sinn Fein: Cllr. Padraig MacLochlainn (Donegal North East), Pearse Doherty TD (Donegal South West). 2 candidates (14.3% of the successful Sinn Fein candidates)
Independent and Other small parties/political groupings: Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow) 1 candidate (6.7% of the successful Independent candidates)
In all, 27 of the 68 younger candidates (in the 21-35 years age cohort) went on to win seats in Dail Eireann – 39.7% of that grouping. By contrast, only 27.7% of the 498 “older” candidates in that election went on to win seats. In all, these younger candidates accounted for 16.4% of all the 165 successful candidates in the 2011 election.
25 (95.6%) of the successful younger candidates were male candidates and only 2 (7.4%) of these successful younger candidates – Ciara Conway and Lucinda Creighton – were female candidate.
Irish Elections: Geography, Facts and Analyses 
Derek Nolan, henry Upton, Aodhán O’Riordáin and James heffernan for Labour are all under 35.
John Lyons is also.
Alan Kelly & Ged Nash are 35 at moment.
Don’t have info on Lorraine Higgins & Michael McNamara but both are young.
Thanks – Alan Kelly and Ged Nash both 35 (just turned) according to their FB details. Michael McNamara also in his late 30s
Cian Prendiville of the Socialist Party running in the Limerick City constituency is well under 35 also.
Thanks Irish Election Literature!
Hi Adrian, great work. Can you tell me is Shaun Treacy running for SinnFein in Dublin South? He is under 30 I would say, and although he only got just over 3 per cent in the 2009 by-election he struck me as someone who would build on that effort and improve significantly.
I don’t think that Shaun has been formally selected yet John, but the strong likelihood is that he will be SF’s standard bearer again in Dublin South – as soon as this is confirmed, I’ll be adding him to this list, as well as list of SF candidates.
Hi Adrian,
Stephen Donnelly, Independent Candidate for Wicklow-East Carlow, is 35.
Many thanks for compiling all this information.
Best wishes,
Niall
Thanks for that Niall !!!
Will add Stephen to the 21-35 ranks!
Hey, any updates to this list? I’m trying to make certain that it’s correct for us to say that I’m the youngest candidate standing in this election (I’m 21, born 09/08/1989). Don’t want to use it in press statements only to be mistaken. But it’s difficult to find out if there are other younger candidates. How complete would you say this list is?
List not complete Cian, still very hard to get accurate age details on number of candidates. I haven’t come across any other candidate in early 20s, but that’s not to say there isn’t another 21 year old candidate out there somewhere…
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sir what is the age limit for candidationin bihar panchayat election 2011
Candidates for general elections may be no younger than 21
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