Adrian Kavanagh, First posted 20th July 2018, with updates as new candidate nominations announced. Any links in this post are to online announcements of candidate selections – there will be no specific links to candidate webpages.

The fourth of my series of rolling blog posts, in which I detail 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 in most cases only after they have been officially selected to run for the party at a selection convention or by some other means of candidate selection. I try my best to find information about local election candidate selection conventions, but in some cases this information is hard to find and occasionally it can be some time after a convention takes place before I find this information and hence am in a position to update this page accordingly.

The post will focus on the candidate selections for the Social Democrats.

As the party was founded just over a year after the 2014 Local Elections, the Social Democrats obviously were not in a position to contest these elections. However, a number of defections from the independent ranks/from other parties to the Social Democrats in the years after that party was founded means that there are currently seven Social Democrat City/County Councillors, according to my best estimates.

As of now (3rd May 2019), fifty eight Social Democrat local election candidates are listed on this page. Thirty two of these candidates are women (55.2%) and twenty six of these are men (44.8%). To the best of my knowledge, at least fifty eight Social Democrat selection conventions have taken place, as of now.

The candidates that have been officially selected to contest the 2019 Local Elections as Social Democrat candidates include:

On 20th July 2018, the Social Democrats announced a list of six candidates who would be contesting the 2019 Local Elections, including five female candidates (Holly Cairns, Rebecca Doyle, Evie Evans Nevin, Denise Whitmore and Betty Walsh) and one male candidate (Ken Curtin). Denise Whitemore, who was selected to contest the Wexford (Town) electoral area, withdrew from the election in early 2019. The Social Democrats Dublin Bay North Facebook page reported on 25th July 2018 that Catherine Stocker had been selected as a candidate for the Clontarf electoral area. Síle Ní Dhubhghaill was selected as the candidate for the Macroom electoral area on 9th August 2018. On 14th August 2018 it was confirmed that Cllr. Paul Mulville would be contesting the Rush-Lusk electoral area, while Garrett Mullan would be the party candidate for the Balbriggan electoral area. On 15th August, Cllr. Joe Harris was selected as the candidate for Cork City South East at a selection convention in the Douglas Community Centre. Kieran Walsh was selected as the Limerick City North candidate on 29th August 2018.

On 4th September 2018 Cllr. Dermot Looney noted that he would not be contesting the next local elections (in the new Rathfarnham-Templeogue electoral area) and that Carly Bailey – who has also been selected as the party’s Dublin South-West general election candidate – would be contesting that constituency instead. Paddy Monahan was selected as the party’s Donaghmede candidate on 5th September 2018. Sharon Nolan and John Crowley were selected as candidates for Galway City Central and Galway City West respectively at a series of selection conventions on 23rd September 2018, which were contested by three other candidates. On 24th September 2018 Aidan Farrelly was selected as the candidate to contest the Clane electoral area. As reported by the Leinster Leader (28th September 2018), two more Social Democrat candidates were selected in Kildare County soon after this – Samantha Kenny in Athy and Richard Kelly in Newbridge. Richard Kelly, however, subsequently had to withdraw from the local election contest – Chris Pender was subsequently selected to contest Newbridge in February 2019. On 28th September 2018 it was announced that Ellie Kisyombee and Carol Deans would be party candidates in the North Inner City electoral area. 

As reported on the Wicklow News (16th November 2018) website, Dave McGinn was selected as the candidate for the Baltinglass electoral area on 15th November 2018.

Elisa O’Donovan was selected as the candidate for Limerick City West on 18th December 2018. This convention was also contested by Mark Carey. David Quinn was selected as the candidate for the Dún Laoghaire electoral area around this time also. 

Trevor McCarthy was announced as the candidate for Cappamore-Kilmallock in January 2019.

Cllr. Jennifer Whitmore was selected to contest the Greystones electoral area at a selection convention on 26th January 2019

Sinéad Gibney was confirmed as the candidate in the Blackrock electoral area in late January 2019.

Anne Marie McNally was confirmed as the Lucan candidate in late January.

The selection convention for Tallaght Central took place on 4th February 2019.

Kevin Lyda was selected to contest the Tuam constituency, but subsquently withdrew from the local election contest.