Adrian Kavanagh, First posted 31st October 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 fifth 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 Fianna Fáil candidate selections ahead of the 2019 City and County Council elections. 

After a disastrous series of elections (2009 Local and European Elections, 2011 General Election) across the period extending from the onset of the Economic Crisis in 2008 to the Fianna Fáil-Green Party government leaving office in early 2011, Fianna Fáil made some significant gains at the 2014 City and County Council elections. Winning 267 seats in these contests, Fianna Fáil once again became the largest party at the local authority ahead of Fine Gael although Fine Gael would retain their position as largest party in the state at general election contest at the subsequent 2016 General Election. Defections from the party reduced the overall number of Fianna Fáil City and County Councillors over the coming years, but this has been somewhat offset by the fact that one Councillor decided to join the party over this same period. According to my best estimates, I currently estimate that there are 262 Fianna Fáil City and County Councillors.

Even though the party’s support figure trends recent opinion polls have been decidedly mixed, Fianna Fáil may well approach the 2019 Local Elections with the expectation of making a number of further gains. The changing local election boundaries could potentially help Fianna Fáil (and work against the smaller parties), given that lower district magnitudes are generally expected to give the largest political parties a “seat bonus”. While this applies very much to general elections, however, sometimes the “local” nature of City and County Council elections can mean that the potential for such a “seat bonus” is not as strong as might be anticipated.

As of now (6th June 2019), four hundred and fifteen Fianna Fáil local election candidates are listed on this page. 

Eighty eight of these candidates are women (21.2%) and three hundred and twenty seven of these are men (78.8%). All one hundred and sixty six* Fianna Fáil selection conventions have now taken place. (* No convention in Nenagh.) 

Two hundred and twenty three of these Fianna Fáil local election candidates are currently sitting City/County Councillors (incumbents) – 53.7% of the total. 58.7% of male Fianna Fáil local election candidates are incumbents, as opposed to 35.2% of female Fianna Fáil candidates. Thirty three (14.8%) of these Councillor/incumbent candidates were co-options. At least thirteen (3.1%) other Fianna Fáil local election candidates have had previous experience of holding electoral office.

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

(Please note that, as in the other similar posts, any links that are provided here are to posts/newspaper reports offering “evidence” of their candidatures and will normally not link back to candidate websites.):

I will be adding to this list as and when I come across further Fianna Fáil candidate selections.

The Fianna Fail selection convention for Kanturk took place in Newmarket on 26th October 2018. Three candidates were nominated to contest this selection convention, but former councillor, Bart Donegan, withdrew in advance of the convention.

The selection convention for Ballymun-Finglas and Artane-Whitehall took place on 30th October 2018 and three candidates – all incumbents – were selected at this.

On 2nd November Cllr. Patrick Murphy and George A. Gill were selected as candidates for the Bantry electoral area at the selection convention for that constituency.

Cllr. Cormac Devlin and Justin Moylan were selected as party candidates for the Dún Laoghaire electoral area at a selection convention, which took place in Benitos restaurant in Dalkey on 5th November 2018.

The selection convention for the Adare-Rathkeale electoral area took place on 8th November 2018. There were three nominations for three places on the Fianna Fáil ticket for this electoral area – Trina O’Dea (Croom), Bridie Collins (Adare) and Cllr. Kevin Sheahan (Adare).

The Fianna Fáil selection convention for Mallow took place on 12th November 2018. Once candidate – Cllr. Gearóid Murphy – was nominated to contest this and thus selected. In February 2019, Pat Hayes was added to the ticket here, as reported in The Corkman (16th February 2019).  

Cllr. Tom Brabazon was selected to contest the Donaghmede electoral area on 14th November 2018. Daryl Barron was added as a second candidate for this electoral area in late January 2019.

With Cllr. Ronan McKenna deciding not to contest the next local elections, an all-female three-candidate ticket was selected to contest the local elections for Fianna Fáil in the Trim electoral area on 15th November  2018, as reported by the Meath Chronicle (16th November 2018).

As reported on the Laois Today website (19th November 2018), the selection convention for Portlaoise was held in the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise on Monday 19th November 2018. While two of the incumbents were selected at this, Cllr. Pauline Madigan, who had been co-opted onto the Council a few months earlier, failed to win a nomination. As reported by the Leinster Express (20th November 2018), there was a separate convention for the area outside the Portlaoise urban area, in which Cllr. John Joe Fennelly was unopposed, as well as a separate convention to select two candidates from the Portlaoise urban area, in which Cllr. Catherine Fitzgerald and Donal Kelly were selected. Pauline Madigan was subsequently added to the Fianna Fáil ticket.

As reported by the Clare Echo (25th November 2018), the Fianna Fáil selection convention for the Killaloe electoral area took place in Tulla on 23rd November, with the three incumbents being selected following a vote involving c.150 party members – Liam Wiley lost out. The Listowel selection convention also took place on that same night in Listowel, as reported by the Radio Kerry website (24th November 2018). Selection conventions took place for some of the electoral areas in the Dublin South-West Dáil constituency area on 26th November (Tallaght-Central, Firhouse-Bohernabreena, Rathfarnham-Templeogue). As reported in the Limerick Leader (27th November 2018), a number of Fianna Fáil selection conventions took place in Limerick City in the last week of November. In the Limerick City North convention, where it was decided that only one candidate would be selected at the convention, Cllr. Kieran O’Hanlon lost out in the convention vote (won by Christy McInerney), although it was expected that he will be subsequently added to the Fianna Féil ticket for that electoral area (as indeed he was on 13th December 2018). As reported by the Limerick Post (7th March 2019), Pat O’Neill was later added as a third candidate in Limerick City North. Francis Brosnahan, who was one of four candidates selected to contest Limerick City West, announced his withdrawal from the local election contest in March 2019, as reported by the Limerick Leader (19th March 2019). Three conventions took place for the electoral areas in Waterford City on 29th November; all four incumbents were selected, as well as Rita Lacey (in the Tramore-Waterford City West electoral area). As reported by The Enniscorthy Guardian, the selection convention for Enniscorthy also took place in late November 2018.

The selection convention for Bandon-Kinsale took place on 1st December – this was also contested by Sean O’Donovan. Selection conventions for the Galway City electoral areas took place on 3rd December, as did the convention for Cashel-Tipperary, while the convention for the New Ross electoral area also took place on that night in the Horse and Hound in Ballinaboola. The selection convention for the Carlow (Town) electoral area took place on 1st December and the selection conventions for the Killarney and Castlebar electoral areas took place on the following day. The convention for the Piltown electoral area took place in Mullinavat on 4th December 2018, while the Castleknock selection convention also took place on that same night. The convention for Ballyjamesduff took place on 5th December 2018 and this selected the same candidate team as had contested this electoral area in 2014 – Shirley Byers and Michael Smollen also contested this convention – while the convention for Glencullen-Sandyford also took place on that same night. The Stillorgan selection convention took place on 5th December 2019. Selection conventions for the Borris in Ossory-Mountmellick and Graiguecullen-Portarlington electoral areas in Laois are scheduled to take place on Thursday 6th December 2018, as reported on the Laois Today (4th December 2018) website. The three candidates for the Graiguecullen-Portarlington electoral area and the three candidates based in the northern half of Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick were all automatically selected, but there was a vote for the remaining position on the Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick ticket, involving two candidates from the southern part of that constituency, as reported by the Laois Voice (6th December 2018); Seam Mortimer from Camross lost out in this vote. Selection conventions for the Sligo-Strandhill and Sligo-Drumcliff electoral areas also took place on this same night, as reported on the Ocean FM website (7th December 2018), while conventions were also held for the two Drogheda electoral areas (as noted on the LMFM website (7th December 2018)). Declan Power was added to the Drogheda Rural ticket by the Fianna Fáil National Constituency Committee in late January 2019. The selection convention for the Clonmel and Carrick on Suir electoral areas took place on 7th December 2018, as did the conventions for the Lismore and Dungarvan electoral areas in Waterford County.

As reported by the Clare Echo (10th December 2018), selection conventions for three electoral areas in Clare took place on 9th December 2018 – Ennis, Ennistymon and Shannon. The Ennis selection convention was contested – “Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy topped the poll and was followed by Cllr Pat Daly, former councillor Bernard Hanrahan and Mark Nestor finished in third and fourth respectively” – but the intial decision to select just two candidates at the convention was maintained despite a call from the attendees to be allowed to select more candidates. Mark Nestor was subsequently added to the party ticket. Cllr. Richard Nagle was the only candidate selected at the Ennistymon selection convention, but he subsequently announced that he was retiring from politics in early February 2019. Martin O’Loughlen and Shane Talty were subsequently added as the party candidates for this electoral area, as reported by the Clare Echo (18th March 2019). The selection convention for the Athlone (Westmeath) electoral area also took place on 9th December 2018, while the selection conventions for Rush-Lusk took place in Murray’s in Lusk on 10th December 2018, as well as the convention for the South Central and South West electoral areas in Cork City.  As reported on the Northern Sound website (11th December 2018), the convention for the Monaghan electoral area was held on 10th December 2018; this was a contested convention with just one candidate to be selected and Cllr. Raymond Aughey lost out in the vote to Emer Brennan, although he was subsequently added to the ticket. The selection convention for the An Daingean electoral area also took place on 10th December 2018 in Milltown, as reported on the Killarney Today (11th December 2018) website. Selection conventions for Ballybay-Clones, Ardee, Ratoath, Lucan and Clondalkin electoral areas all took place on 11th December 2018. The Ballybay-Clones convention was also contested by Therese Hamilton. Selection conventions for Cappaghmore-Kilmallock, Westport, Newbridge, Gorey and North Inner City took place on 13th December 2018. The Newbridge convention was contested, with Antoinette Buckley and Cllr. Murty Aspell losing out in the convention vote, as reported by the Kildare Nationalist (18th December 2018). Murty Aspell and Antoinette Buckley were both subsequently added to the party ticket in January 2019, the Kildare Nationalist (29th January 2019)and the Kildare Nationalist (29th January 2019). The Westport convention was also contested, with Tommy Duggan narrowly losing out in this, as reported by the Connaught Telegraph (24th January 2019) – Chris Maxwell from Louisburgh was added as a second Fianna Fáil candidate for Westport in late January 2019.

As reported on the Shannonside Radio (15th December 2018) website, selection conventions for the electoral areas in Co. Leitrim toook place in early December. The selection convention for the Roscommon/Mid Roscommon electoral area took place on 14th December 2018, with two candidates to be selected out of a choice of four, as reported on the Shannonside Radio website (15th December 2018). Larry Brennan, as well as Cllr. Paschal Fitzmaurice – who had topped the pol in this electoral area at the 2014 Local Elections – both lost out in this vote. As reported on the MidWest Radio website (15th December 2018), it was expected that Cllr. Fitzmaurice would be subsequently added to the ticket and indeed he was only a few days later. The selection convention for the Birr electoral area, which also took place on 14th December 2018, was also contested, with Alan Kenny losing out in that vote (two candidates selected from a choice of three). As reported by the Longford Leader (16th December 2018), the selection convention for the Ballymahon electoral area also took place on 14th December 2018, as did the conventions for the Swords and Howth-Malahide electoral areas.

The selection convention for Ballymote-Tobercurry took place on 16th December 2018. A number of convention also took place in Kilkenny county over that same weekend, as reported on the KCLR radio website (17th December 2018); the convention for Kilkenny City was contested, with former councillor, John Coonan, losing out in that vote. John Coonan was subsequently added to the ticket in February 2019, as reported in the Kilkenny People (19th February 2019). The selection conventions for the Blackrock, Maynooth, Naas, Athlone (Roscommon), Greystones and Kenmare electoral areas took place on 17th December 2018. The Athlone convention was contested, with Seamus Kelly losing out in the vote by a 66-48 margin, as reported by the Roscommon People (20th December 2018), although a number of other candidates withdrew in protest at the decision to select just one candidate. Malachy Hand was added as a second party candidate for Athlone (Roscommon) in late January 2019. Seamus Kelly was added as a third candidate in March 2019, as reported on the Shannonside News website (14th March 2019). The selection conventions for the two Dundalk electoral areas took place on 18th December 2018, as well as the convention for the Carrickmacross electoral area, as reported on the Northern Sound (18th December 2018) website. Aoife McCooey was added to the Carrickmacross-Castleblaney ticket in late March 2019, as reported on the Northern Sound website (29th March 2019). The selection convention for the Edenderry and Laytown-Bettystown electoral areas took place on 19th December 2018, as did the selection conventions for the electoral areas in the Dublin South-Central and Dublin Bay South Dáil constituency areas (the Pembroke convention was also contested by Kevin Byrne) and the Milford electoral area. The selection covention for the Fermoy electoral area also took place in December 2018, as reported on the Avondhu website (22nd December 2018). As reported by the Offaly Express (18th January 2019), Christine Traynor was subsequently added to the candidate list in Edenderry, 

The selection convention for the Killiney-Shankill electoral area took place on 3rd January 2019, while the convention for the Wicklow (Town) electoral area took place on 8th January 2019. As reported on the Shannonside Radio (10th January 2019) website, the selection convention for the Boyle electoral area took place on 10th January 2019 – with three candidates contesting and three to be selected, this was an uncontested convention.

The selection convention for the Kells electoral area took place on 15th January 2019 – there was no contest here and all four nominated candidates were selected to run for Fianna Fáil in this constituency. The selection convention for the Carrigaline electoral area took place on the night before this (14th January 2019), while the convention for Bray East took place on the following night (16th January 2019). The selection convention for the Swinford electoral area took place on 19th January 2019, while conventions for the Ballina and Claremorris electoral areas took place on 20th January 2019, as reported on the MidWest Radio website (21st January 2019) and also reported by The Mayo News (22nd January 2019). The Claremorris convention was contested with Michael Nally losing out here.

The selection convention for the Dundrum electoral area took place on 21st January 2019. The convention for the Palmerstown-Fonthill electoral area took place on the following day (22nd January 2019).

The selection convention for the Belmullet electoral area took place on 27th January 2019, while the conventions for the Loughrea, Cobh and Moate electoral areas took place on 25th January 2019 – the Cobh convention was also contested by Tom Howard and Jim Halligan, while – as reported on the Galway Bay FM website (26th January 2019) – the Loughrea convention was also contested by Pat Flanagan, Peter Gohery and Cllr. Ivan Canning. As reported on the Galway Bay FM website (29th January 2019), Ivan Canning and Pat Flanagan were subsequently added to the party ticket soon after the convention.  The selection convention for Skibbereen-West Cork took place on 28th January 2019. With no convention in Nenagh, Damian Hough and Brendan Murphy were added to the party ticket for that electoral area on 28th January 2019. it was also announced on that day that Denise McMorrow was being added as a second candidate on the Fianna Fáil ticket for North Inner City. As reported on the Galway Bay FM website (29th January 2019), the selection convention for the new Gort Kinvara electoral area took place on 28th January also. Sadly, Cllr. Michael Fahy, who was selected to run for Fianna Fáil in Gort-Kinvara at this convention, passed away on 2nd April 2019, as reported on the Galway Bay FM website (3rd April 2019). 

The convention for the Midleton electoral area took place on 23rd January 2019 (which wasalso contested by John O’Brien), while the Cobh electoral area convention took place on 26th January 2019, as reported by the East Cork Journal (31st January 2019). James O’Connor was added to the party ticket for Midleton in March 2019. Cllr. Michael Ahern had been selected to contest the local elections at the Midleton selection convention, but subsequently did not appear on the ballot paper. As reported by the Longford Leader (4th February 2019), the selection convention for the Longford (Town) electoral area took place on 1st February 2019. One of the candidates selected at this convention – Michael Connellan – subsequent withdrew from the electoral contest, as reported by the Longford Leader (24th February 2019).

The selection convention for the Tuam electoral area took place on 4th February 2019, as reported by the Connacht Tribune (5th February 2019) – this was also contested by Joe Sheridan, with Colm Keaveney withdrawing just ahead of the convention. Both Sheridan and Keaveney were subsequently added to the ticket by Fianna Fáil headquarters, as reported on the Galway Bay FM News website (22nd February 2019). The Athy selection convention also took place on 4th February 2019, as reported by the Kildare Nationalist (14th February 2019), with the Cork City South East selection convention taking place on the following night (5th February 2019). The selection convention for Portlaw-Kilmacthomas took place on 8th February 2019. As reported in the Donegal Democrat (7th February 2019), Cllr. Michael Naughton, Philip McGlynn and Roger Meehan have been selected to contest the Donegal (Town) electoral area.

As reported by the Connacht Tribune (10th February 2019), the Conamara North selection convention took place on 10th February 2019 – this was also contested by Josie Conneely. 

The Kilrush selection convention was scheduled to take place on 15th February 2019, but a directive from the National Constituencies Committee had directed the three candidates who were left in the contest for the party nominations here be selected – all three were sitting County Councillors – be selected at this. As it transpired, however, Cllr. Tom McNamara instead announced his retirement from politics at this convention, as reported in the Clare Echo (16th February 2019). As noted on the Clare FM website (15th March 2019), Cillian Murphy was subsequently added as a third party candidate here in March 2019. 

As reported on the Echo Live website (12th February 2019), selection conventions for Cork City North-East and Cork City North-West took place on 11th February 2019 – Cllr. Tony Fitzgerald lost out in the selection vote for the Cork City North-West candidate selections. he was subsequently added to the ticket, as reported by the Echo Live website (15th February 2019). The Bailieborough-Cootehill selection convention took place on 13th February 2019 – however, as reported by the Northern Sound website (4th March 2019), one of the candidates selected at this – Cllr. Fergal Curtin – subsequently announced that he was retiring from local politics and would not be contesting the local elections. Gerry Murray was subsequently added to the party ticket for Bailieborough-Cootehill, as reported on the Northern Sound website (29th March 2019). Three candidates lost out at the Bailieborough-Cootehill convenion – Martin McBreen, Francis McDermott, and Barry Smith – but Francis McDermott was also subsequently added to the party ticket, as noted by the Anglo Celt (19th April 2019). Three candidates were added onto the tickets for the Tralee and Killarney electoral areas in February 2019, as reported on the Radio Kerry (14th February 2019) website. Sean Kelly was also added to the Dundalk-Carlingford ticket by the Fianna Fáil National Constituencies Committee on 15th February 2019. 

As reported on the Northern Sound website (19th February 2019), the selection convention for the Cavan-Belturbet electoral area took place on 18th February 2019.

On 21st February 2019 it was revealed that Independent South Dublin County Councillor, Deirdre O’Donovan, had joined Fianna Fáil and would be contesting Firhouse-Bohernabreena alongside Cllr. Emma Murphy

The Mullingar selection convention took place on 6th March 2019. As reported by the Donegal Democrat (March 2019), the Glenties selection convention took place on 8th March 2019 – as reported by the Highland Radio website (9th March 2019), Cllr. Enda Bonner lost out in a vote to be on the party ticket by a 33-26 vote margin to Noreen McGarvey. As reported by the Donegal Democrat (15th March 2019), Enda Bonner was subsequently added to the party ticket. The Letterkenny selection convention took place on 10th March 2019. 

In March 2019, Hannah Lemass was added to the party ticket for Cabra-Glasnevin.

The selection convention for the Kinnegad electoral area took place on 25th March 2019.

The selection convention for Roscrea-Templemore also took place in late March 2019, as reported on the Tipperary live website (26th March 2019).  The selection conventions for the Balbriggan and Macroom electoral areas also took place in late March 2019 (Michael Looney and Jason Fitzgerald were added as candidates for Macroom in April/May 2019). 

As reported in the Inishowen Independent (23rd April 2019), Marie Duffy was added as a second candidate for the Carndonagh electoral area. 

Cllr Tom O’Driscoll was selected to contest Cork City South Central, but subsequently decided to retire from local politics. He will be replaced on the ticket there by former Independent Councillor, David Boyle.

The selection convention for the Leixlip electoral area took place in the middle of April 2019.

Tommy Wright was selected to contest the Kinnegad electoral area, but did not subsequently appear on the ballot paper.

Cllr. Daithí O’Donnabháin was selected to contest Cork City South West, but has withdrawn from the election contest and has been replaced on the ticket by Shane Fallon.

Cllr. Pat Doran was selected to contest the Baltinglass electoral area, but did not subsequently appear on the ballot paper.