Adrian Kavanagh 4th February 2014

This post will attempt to list all of the City/County Councillors who lost out in local election selection conventions for their respective parties (including those who were subsequently added to the candidate list by their party headquarters after these convention votes). This list does not include Borough/Town Councillors, or those City/County Councillors who withdrew from a convention just before a vote was taken. There are twenty two (2.5% of the number elected (883) in 2009) people in this group. The number of unsuccessful Fianna Fail candidates in Cappamore-Kilmallock is unusually high as only one candidate was selected at the actual convention (and the other three incumbents were added to the ticket by party headquarters some weeks after).

Twenty of the people in this group are male (90.9%) and two are female (9.1%). Fianna Fail accounts for fourteen of the people in this category (63.6%) while Fine Gael accounted for the remaining nine (36.4%) people in this group.   

A number of these councillors were subsequently added to the party candidate list by party headquarters after the convention vote had taken place. Well over two-thirds (seventeen or 81.8%) of the people in this group have been added by their party headquarters and these candidates are highlighted by one star (*) in the list below (although one – highlighted by three stars (***) – subsequently has decided not to contest the elections and will be retiring from politics).

A number of these councillors failed to be added by their party headquarters and most of these opted to contest the elections as independent candidates instead – four candidates fall into this category (18.2% of total). The candidates falling into this group arehighlighted by two stars (**) in the list below. For instance, two of the Fianna Fail councillors who lost out at party conventions (Paddy Bracken and Raymond Cribbin) in Laois announced that they would be contesting the election as independents if they were not added to the ticket by party headquarters. Indeed one of them, Raymond Cribbin, took out campaign advertising in a local newspaper, which makes no reference to the Fianna Fail party. The third of the Fianna Fail councillors in Laois, Brendan Phelan, said he would also be considering his position in the wake of a decision by party headquarters on adding candidates. After a meeting on 14th February, it was decided that only Paddy Bracken would be added to the Fianna Fail candidates list (in Borris in Ossory-Mountmellick). Ray Cribbin and Brendan Phelan are now contesting the election as an independent candidates, as is Nick Killian in Ratoath. In a similar vein, Fine Gael Councillor, Ruairi McGinley, has announced that he will contest Rathmines-Rathgar as an independent candidate after he was not added to the Fine Gael ticket after losing out at the convention there.

Pat O’Toole is the only councillor in this group who will not be contesting the local elections.

The level of sitting councillors that have lost out at conventions is not surprising given the impact of the local election boundary changes and the reduction in local authority seat levels in some areas/counties, meaning increased competition for seats in these areas but also increased competition to be on the party ticket (in particular the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael party tickets) in some of these instances. The level of convention losses may well be higher but for the relatively high number of retiring councillors ahead of the upcoming local elections.

The list of sitting City and Councillors that lost out at their party selection conventions, which I can account for at present, includes:

If you notice any errors or omissions in this list – if I am missing someone here that you know lost at a convention, or who has already been added to the party ticket after a convention defeat, or if I have incorrectly listed someone here who did not lose at a convention, please do bring these to my attention: please see the Contacts Details page for this site. 

Thanks to those who have provided information to add to/correct the details listed here, including Neale Richmond.