[QUOTE=“dodgy-keeper, post: 948563, member: 1552”]To be fair O’Brien is FF in all but name. For an independent he had a big machine behind him, huge amount of posters around the place. Will be interesting to see who gets the last couple of seats, looks like a dogfight.
Theresa Heaney, Catholic Democrats, struggling in Ireland South. :p[/QUOTE]
Why didn’t he run for FF? Are they still ashamed of it?
There was war (metaphorically speaking) at the FF selection convention.
Head office dictated the candidates who would run in the area whereas the grass roots members wanted a “one member, one vote” system to elect the nominees. There was a walk-out and protests etc but ultimately the party leadership wouldn’t budge and insisted on getting their preferred candidates onto the campaign ticket. It is widely believed that O’Brien was shafted as he would have been selected by the ordinary members as one of the candidates. Once he was snubbed he decided to run as an independent.
How’s Iron Mike doing?
Mike Houlihan ex-Limerick is a Fine Gael councillor/council candidate?
@Bandage thought you’d be interested to know ni21 performing poorly and are in chaos after split between McCrea and McCallister.
They reckon he’ll just about hang-on and get the last seat, fairly tight all the same though. The young Sinn Fein lady topped the poll, she is only 20. Studying Government in UCC.
He was elected the last time.
What about Molla Donegan?
Very interesting, thanks.
What’s your take on events in the 6 counties generally?
Sinn Féin seem to have strengthened in Derry and mid Ulster but perhaps some disappointing results in Belfast?
Yeah he was elected the last time around to the local council, in a battle to hold his seat this time but should just about do it. He runs a public house in Kilmallock. A sound fella too.
He’s the best, mate.
Yep, just start a new conversation and click Upload a file.
He’ll be elected.
@Rocko, please provide your overview of the European election results thus far and the by-elections?
There are no European results so far @Bandage - all we have are tallies.
However, my perspective on those tallies is as follows:
Labour have been decimated. They spent their time in opposition picking away at the PDs then the Green Party and were generally afraid to take on the policies of FF and FG because they knew they’d be in bed with one or other of them sooner or later. Now they are, they’ve completely lost their identity and they will lose all their European seats and a large chunk of their local representatives. FG have far more representation than Labour but they’ve shared the carnage fairly evenly - meaning Labour are disproportionately suffering.
SF haven’t quite managed to get what they were expected from the polls but this isn’t as serious for them because they generally only run 1 candidate in an area so they’re getting that 1 candidate home in most cases. They may be the largest party in Dublin, they may return 80-90% of their candidates in Dublin. That’s exceptionally strong going. And considering how many of those are first time candidates - that bodes very well for the next General Election. The “protest vote” element of the local and European elections tends to be diluted when it comes to the General Election but against that Sinn Féin will have now built the brand identity of each of these candidates and they are poised to capitalise further. They’ll be delighted with this - a target would have been 100 seats, they look like they’ll get 150. Slight concern for them on whether they’ll get 3 European seats in the 26 counties. Again, that was an ambitious target. But they’ll top the poll in Dublin, get in second in Dublin South and I’m guessing the tallies may be inaccurate and they’ll get Carthy home in the west.
Fianna Fáil can’t be happy with how they haven’t eaten into the drop off for Labour and FG. They have recovered a little in opinion polls but they’re struggling now to carve out an identity for themselves and they’re not producing young candidates the way Sinn Féin are.
A Sinn Féin and Independent and possibly Labour coalition after the next election is a live possibility.
Thanks, @Rocko. Sinn Féin are having young candidates elected all over the country. A 21-year old has topped the poll in one of the Cork City wards.
Are we seeing the impact of social media here? Targeted attacks against Sinn Féin in the mainstream print media from the likes of the Irish and Sunday Independent aren’t having the impact of old.
[QUOTE=“Rocko, post: 948617, member: 1”]
A Sinn Féin and Independent and possibly Labour coalition after the next election is a live possibility.[/QUOTE]
I don’t see how you could get anywhere near 84 seats in the Dáil with that make up.
I only just realized that adare/rathkeale is a 6 seater. Sure there was hardly 12 going for it.
Final tally for Adare/Rathkeale shows independent candidate Emmet O’Brien is likely to top the poll with 18.5% of the vote.
6 seats, 11 candidates.