Adrian Kavanagh; First posted 2nd July 2013 with updates as and when new Fianna Fail candidate nominations were announced. Any links in this post are to online announcements of candidate selections and are not specifically/usually links to candidate webpages.

This post will focus on Fianna Fail candidate selections.In Summer 2013 Fianna Fail had two hundred and fifteen City/County Councillors and one hundred and eighty four Borough/Town Councillors (thirty seven of these also serve as County Councillors), meaning that the party had a total of three hundred and sixty three local elected representatives. Various selection defections have resulted in a reduction in these number over the last eight months. Fianna Fail now has two hundred and fourteen City/County Councillors and one hundred and seventy four Borough/Town Councillors (thirty eight of these also serve as County Councillors), meaning that the party had a total of three hundred and fifty local elected representatives.

With the party’s support levels improving in the wake of the poor showing at General Election 2011, the 2014 Local Elections will be vitally important to Fianna Fail as the continue the process of rebuilding the party and seek to get strong potential general election candidates established at a local level, especially in regions such as Dublin where party representation levels are low at present. It is worth remembering that the party did not do as badly in the 2009 Local Elections as they did in the 2011 General Election and outside of Dublin and the other cities the party’s local representation levels are relatively high (even rivaling, or surpassing, Fine Gael in some regions). The overall potential for significant seat gains relative to the party’s number of City/Council seats needs to take account of this, especially given that current Fianna Fail support levels in opinion polls is largely on a par with the party’s overall level of support in the 2009 elections. The 2013 boundary changes posed some selection headaches for the party in its more rural strongholds, as a large number of outgoing County/Town Councillors were left to seek party nominations with a number of losing candidates at the 2009 and 2011 elections also entering the fray. In the party’s (currently) weaker regions, members of the party’s Local Area Representatives group, including people such as Lorraine Clifford, Lisa Chambers, Sarah Ryan, James Lawless, Paul Anthony Ward and Catherine Ardagh, were to figure prominently in local election candidate selections here.

Four hundred and fifeen Fianna Fail candidates will be on the ballot paper at this year’s City and County Council elections, with these having been selected across one hundred and thirty six different conventions – for 99.3% of the entire number (137) of electoral areas. There was no convention in the one remaining electoral area, Letterkenny (Donegal). Instead a decision was made by Fianna Fail party headquarters as to which candidates would join sitting councillors, Liam Blaney and Ciaran Brogan, on the party ticket (namely John Watson and James Pat McDaid). *Mary Hanafin has been listed on the official candidates list for Blackrock as a Fianna Fail candidate,  but Fianna Fail has claimed that they are only running one candidate, Kate Feeney, in that electoral area.

Seventy one of these candidates (including Mary Hanafin) (17.1%) are female and three hundred and forty four are male (82.9%).

The number of Fianna Fail candidates is down significantly on the party’s 2009 numbers. Fianna Fail ran 473 candidates at the 2009 City and County Council elections, including three hundred and ninety three male candidates (83.1%) and eighty female candidates (16.9%).

One hundred and eighty two (43.9%) of these candidates are sitting City/County Councillors. A further thirty one candidates are non-dual mandate Town Councillors (seventeen others serve both on County and Town/Borough Councils), meaning that two hundred and thirteen (51.3%) of the Fianna Fail candidates are currently holding positions at a local authority level, either as City/County or/and as Borough/Town Councillors. Incumbents account for 60% of all candidates in the rural electoral areas, but only 36% of all candidates in the more urban electoral areas.

The list of Fianna Fail local election candidates includes:

The first Fianna Fail selection convention took place on 30th July 2013 for the Fermoy electoral area and this confirmed the candidatures of Kevin O’Keeffe, Frank O’Flynn and Ian Doyle. The second convention took place for the Roscommon electoral area in the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon on 17th September, with sitting councilors Paschal Fitzmaurice and Orla Leyden, and Roscommon publican Larry Brennan being selected to contest the election for Fianna Fail. A third took place for the Ballymote-Tubbercurry electoral area on 18th September 2013 and the four successful candidates at this included former TD, Eamon Scanlon, two County Councilors, Joe Queenan and Jerry Lundy, and former Sligo footballer, Paul Taylor. The latter two conventions were both contested. Cloonfad-based Pat Donnellan lost out in the convention for the Roscommon electoral area, while sitting councillor, Martin Baker, lost out narrowly to Paul Taylor on the last count of the Ballymote-Tubbercurry selection convention. The Comeragh electoral area convention also took place on the same day. Selections for the Dun Laoghaire and Limerick City North electoral areas, following on the 19th September, completed the list of the first six Fianna Fail selection conventions. 

Cllr. Gary Wyse was selected to contest the Waterford City East electoral area along with Eamon McGrath on 2nd October 2013. Sadly he passed away on 22nd October 2013. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

A number of candidates have been added by party headquarters after the party convention has taken place. This number amounts to fifty eight candidates – forty male (69.0%) and eighteen female (31.0%) (including the Letterkenny electoral area selections). Deirdre Kelly was added to the West Cork electoral area ticket after having initially lost out at the electoral area convention. Other candidates added to party tickets after a convention took place include Lisa Rogerson (Dun Laoghaire), Kate Feeney (Blackrock), Sarah Ryan (Dundrum), Liam Dockery (Stillorgan), Mary Rose Desmond (Ballincollig-Carrigaline), Paddy Bracken (Borris in Ossory-Mountmellick) and John Leahy (Newcastle West).

Three candidates (all incumbents) were added to the Cappamore-Kilmallock ticket after the party convention (in which only one candidate – Eddie Ryan – was selected), but one of these, Eddie Wade, subsequently decided in February 2014 not to contest the elections and will be instead retiring from politics. Paul O’Donoghue was selected to contest the South and West Kerry electoral area but, as reported on the the Radio Kerry website on 5th February 2014, he has subsequently decided not to contest the local elections. Norma Moriarty replaced him on the ticket. There has been a change in the Fianna Fail team in the Tullamore electoral area. Tony McCormack, who was initially selected to contest the local elections at the party convention, is stepping down due to business commitments and has been replaced by Declan Harvey. Seamus Caulfield was selected as a Fianna Fail candidate for the Claremorris electoral area but withdrew his candidacy in February 2014. Barry Conway was selected to contest the Blackrock electoral area, winning the only place being contested at that convention (with second-placed Kate Feeney being subsequently added to the ticket), but he withdrew from the contest in February 2014. Greystones Town Councillor, Kathleen Kelleher, was selected to contest the local elections in Greystones but will not now be contesting these and will instead be retiring from politics. Padraic Vallelly was selected to contest Ballincollig-Carrigaline at the electoral area convention but withdrew from the contest in February 2014 in the wake of the decision by party headquarters to add Mary Rose Desmond to the ticket. Noel Kelly appeared to be a candidate for the Clondalkin electoral area, but was not subsequently on the party list for that electoral area. Don Davern was selected to contest the Clonmel electoral area at the party convention but withdrew from the contest in February 2014. Yvonne McMahon was selected to contest Limerick City North, but had to withdraw from the contest in March 2014 on medical grounds. Sean Connick was selected to contest the New Ross electoral area, but he was appointed CEO of the John F Kennedy Trust in mid April and announced he was retiring from politics and withdrawing from the elections. John O’Keeffe had been added to the Glencullen-Sandyford ticket in February 2014 but will not now be contesting the local elections.

Thanks to Arthur Griffin, Keith Henry, Jonathan Davey, Peter Ormond, Conor Keelan, Oliver Golden, Niall Collins, Frank Gibbons, DJ Moore, Lorraine Clifford, JJ Hurley, Ken Curtin, Pat McAulliffe, Mary Devine O’Callaghan, Patrick Dunne, the good folks at Irish Election Literature, Niall Kelleher, Caroline Byrne, Feidhlim Mac Róibín, Jimmy Moloney, Dara Calleary, Ed O’Brien, Sean Paul Mahon, Marian McGennis, Malcolm Byrne, Martin Dorgan, Paul Leahy, Enda Costello, Evan Murphy, Taragh Hanley, James Doyle, Claire Gallagher, Gerry Kilraine, the Politics in Kerry website, Mark Power, Emmett Hegarty, Barry Ward, Stephanie Keating, Leo Kavanagh, Austin Watt Clancy, Paschal McEvoy, James Doorley, Roibeard Ó Céileacháin and others for updates as to these selections.