Retirement of veteran Independent leaves vacancy in Edenderry Electoral Area at Local Elections

THE decision of veteran Independent councillor, John Foley to call it a day leaves an opening in the six-seater Edenderry Electoral Area in June 7's local elections.

The Kerry native has been a dominant figure on the political stage in Edenderry for many decades, first as a Fianna Fail councillor and in later years as an Independent.

The successful business man also contested general elections on a number of occasions and came close to capturing the seat in north Offaly previously held for many years by the late Fianna Fail great, Ger Connolly.

John Foley secured 1464 first preference votes in the 2019 contest and the destination of his votes will be key to the final outcome in the north Offaly contest.

The Kerry man was elected on the first count in 2019 along with tillage farmer and talented musician, Eddie Fitzpatrick, from Cloneyhurke, who topped the poll.

Cllr Fitzpatrick, the current Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council, is a proven vote-getter and is favourite to top the poll on this occasion as well.

He narrowly missed out on winning a seat in the 2016 General Election as a Fianna Fail candidate and may run again in the event of sitting party Deputy Barry Cowen being elected to the European Parliament as a representative for the Midlands North West constituency.

Cllr Fitzpatrick is joined on the Fianna Fail ticket by Cllr Robert McDermott, an Edenderry town based public representative, and first time candidate, Rhode native, Claire Murray who now resides in Clonmore.

The Edenderry area has been dubbed the constituency of the two Claire's as the Fianna Fail woman shares her name with one of the Sinn Fein's candidates – both even spell their Christian names the same.

In order to determine which candidate would appear first on the ballot paper, an independently verified process, where the names of both were placed in an envelope and one selected by Local Elections Returning Officer, Monica Cleary took place at Aras an Chontae in Tullamore on the Wednesday before the closing date for nominations of candidates.

It determined that Sinn Fein's Claire Murray will appear above Fianna Fail's Claire Murray on the ballot paper.

The candidates are the only women seeking election in the Edenderry area to Offaly County Council.

Sinn Fein's Claire Murray, also a first-time candidate, is a native of Dublin who moved to Rhode over 20 years ago. She works as a regional manager for Sinn Fein in Leinster.

The party's other contender in the Edenderry area is Rory Ryan, a former student union president in Waterford.

In the 2014 local elections, Martin O'Reilly, a school teacher from Daingean, was elected for Sinn Fein only to later quit politics and be replaced by Alan Davy. The latter stood for the party in the 2019 contest but mirroring the party's nationwide drubbing in that fray he was eliminated on the sixth count, thought he captured a credible 597 first preferences.

With the party's strong showing in the opinion polls nationally, Sinn Fein should take at least one seat in north Offaly and may even be in contention for two.

Fine Gael put in a very solid performance in 2019 capturing two seats – Cllr Noel Cribbin and Cllr Liam Quinn – on a 24.7 per cent share of the vote.

Both outgoing councillors – ideally positioned at different ends of the electoral area, Ballycommon and Edenderry – are seeking re-election on this occasion and should put in a strong performance.

The Green party's Mark Hackett, a farmer from Geashill, was co-opted onto Offaly County Council following the election of Cllr Pippa Hackett – his wife – to Seanad Eireann. She now serves as Junior Agriculture Minister.

He enjoys a strong national and local profile though with the polls going against the Greens nationally he faces a struggle to retain his seat.

Veteran politician and former councillor, Edenderry town based Fergus McDonnell, also returns to active politics and this time round he is standing for the new political outfit, Independent Ireland.

An old-time politician, Fergus McDonnell could be one to watch and with just ten candidates in the race in Edenderry he has a very good chance of capturing a seat.

Also in the race is another first-time candidate, John McNamee, an account executive who lives in Edenderry. He is standing as the Social Democrats candidate, a party which is performing consistently in national polls.