Thirty-seven candidates compete in local elections for 19 seats on Offaly County Council

A TOTAL of 37 candidates will contest the local elections in Offaly for seats in the three electoral areas on the county council.
The candidates number 15 in the Birr Electoral Area, ten in the Edenderry Electoral Area and 12 in the Tullamore Electoral Area.

There are a total of 19 seats to be filled in the Offaly county council chamber, seven in the Tullamore Electoral Area and six each in Birr and Edenderry areas.

Four sitting councillors are not seeking re-election – John Carroll (Independent) and Eamon Dooley (Fianna Fail), both in the Birr area; John Foley (Independent), Edenderry Area and Danny Owens (Fianna Fail), Tullamore area.

Fianna Fail has the largest number of candidates in the ring with ten contesting, including newcomers Ollie Bryant in the Tullamore area, Barbarba Daly, a sister of outgoing councillor Eamon Dooley, and Audrey Hennessy Kennedy in the Birr area, and Claire Murray in the Edenderry area.

Fine Gael and Sinn Fein both have five candidates each, with just one Fine Gael candidate declared for the seven-seat Tullamore area, Cllr Neil Feighery.

There are nine non-party (Independent) candidates, three of whom are sitting councillors, John Leahy, Sean O'Brien and Sandra Feehan Smollen. The latter was co-opted to the council in place of her husband Ken who was elected in 2019.

The remaining independent candidates are Mike Boylan, Martin Buckley, Michael Deegan, Garrett Kelly and Jonathan O'Meara in the Birr area and Deirdre Dillon in the Tullamore area.

The Green Party have three candidates, including Cllr Mark Hackett, who was co-opted in place of his wife Pippa, now a Minister of State after being elected to the council five years ago.

The other candidates are Mucklagh based Liam Walsh in the Tullamore area and Ekaterina Koneva in Birr.

Banagher-based Social Democrat Cllr Clare Claffey is seeking re-election and the party's new candidate in Edenderry is John McNamee.

Also in the Birr area, Sean Maher, a former councillor who lost out in 2019, is on the Sinn Fein ticket.

Among the Independents is Jonathan O'Meara, a candidate from Banagher who is aligned with the former Sinn Fein councillor and TD, Deputy Carol Nolan.

In the Edenderry Area a former elected representative, Fergus McDonnell, is running under the new Independent Ireland banner.

Aontu and the Irish Freedom Party have one candidate each in the field – Aubrey Claffey for Aontu in Birr and Patrick Broder who is standinging for the Irish Freedom Party in Tullamore.

Voters in the Edenderry Area will see two candidates named Claire Murray on their ballot paper – one for Fianna Fail and another for Sinn Fein.

An independently verified process, where the names of both candidates 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 prior to the close of formal nominations on Saturday, May 18 last.

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

In the local elections to be eligible to vote you must be at least 18 years old and ordinarily resident in Ireland.
The full list of candidates (in alphabetical order) is as follows:

Birr LEA
Mike Boylan, Non-Party; Martin Buckley, Non-Party; Aubrey Claffey, Aontu; Clare Claffey, Social Democrats; John Clendennen, Fine Gael; Barbara Daly, Fianna Fail; Michael Deegan, Non-Party; Hugh Egan, Fine Gael; Audrey Hennessy Kennedy, Fianna Fail; Garrett Kelly, Non Party; Ekaterina Koneva, Green Party; John Leahy, Non-Party; Sean Maher, Sinn Fein; Jonathan O'Meara, Non-Party; Peter Ormond, Fianna fail.

Edenderry LEA
Noel Cribbin, Fine Gael; Eddie Fitzpatrick, Fianna Fail; Mark Hackett, Green Party; Fergus McDonnell, Non-Party; Robert McDermott, Fianna Fail; John McNamee, Social Democrats; Claire Murray, Sinn Fein; Claire Murray, Fianna Fail; Liam Quinn, Fine Gael, Rory Ryan, Sinn Fein.

Tullamore LEA
Patrick Broder, Irish Freedom Party; Ollie Bryant, Fianna Fail; Deirdre Dillon Non-Party; Tim Farrell, Sinn Fein; Sandy Feehan Smollen, Non-Party; Neil Feighery, Fine Gael; Declan Harvey, Fianna Fail; Aoife Masterson, Sinn Fein; Tony McCormack, Fianna Fail; Frank Moran, Fianna Fail; Sean O'Brien, Non-Party; Liam Walsh, Green Party.

Sorting and counting
Sorting and counting of votes in the local and European elections in Offaly will take place at two different venues 20 miles apart.

On Saturday, June 8 – the morning after polling day – votes will be validated and sorted at St Brendan's Community School in Birr.

They will then be transported 20 miles away to the community centre in Mucklagh where the actual count will start.
The European elections ballot papers will be taken to the count centre for the Midlands North West constituency in Castlebar, Co. Mayo.

At the Birr venue the political parties will conduct tallies and will likely have a clear picture of which candidates are polling well.
It could be late on Saturday evening before the actual counting of votes commences at the community centre in Mucklagh.
Tickets will be required to gain entry to both the sorting centre and count venues in Birr and Mucklagh.

The count will be overseen by the Local Elections Returning Officer, Monica Cleary while County Registrar, Rory Hanniffy will oversee the sorting of ballot papers in St Brendan's Community School.