Offaly Fianna Fail will hold Dail candidate selection meeting next week

OFFALY members of Fianna Fail will meet on Monday evening in Tullamore to select at least one candidate for the next general election.

With a Dail poll due late this year or early in 2025, the party is now finalising its strategy as it bids to retain the seat vacated by Barry Cowen following his election to the European Parliament.

Fianna Fail is expected to pick one candidate at the selection convention in the Tullamore Court Hotel on Monday, September 23 (8pm) and another is likely to be added afterwards.

There are three Dail seats in the Offaly constituency and four Fianna Fail potential nominees have emerged in advance of Monday's meeting.

All of those seeking a place on the ballot paper are sitting councillors and two of them have run for the Dail previously, Cllr Peter Ormond, Shinrone, and Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick, Cloneyhurke.

The others hoping to sway party delegates are Cllr Tony McCormack, Tullamore and Cllr Claire Murray, Rhode.

The next general election will be the first one in Offaly since 1965 without a Cowen on the ballot paper.

Barry Cowen's father, Ber Cowen, Clara, was elected to the Dail for Fianna Fail for the first time in 1969, lost his seat in 1973, regained it in 1977 and held it until his sudden death in 1984.

His son Brian, then aged just 24, won the by-election and went on to become Taoiseach before retiring from politics in 2011 when his younger brother Barry was elected to the Dail.

Cllr Fitzpatrick, a farmer who has run for the Dail three times, including one occasion as an independent, said he is currently canvassing party members for their support.

He expects one person to be selected on Monday. “What they normally do is select one on the night and add one then and I don't see that changing,” said Cllr Fitzpatrick.

Cllr Murray said she would like to run for the Dail because in the last few months she has seen how limited the powers of the council are.

“Since I got elected it's very clear that to make the changes I would like to make, it'd be very hard to make them at local level,” said the councillor, who works as a nurse in a Rhode GP surgery.

Cllr McCormack, who runs a print business in Tullamore, reflected on the departure of the Cowens from Dail elections and said: “Who ever gets the nomination is stepping into big shoes because Offaly Fianna Fail has had huge representation in Dail Eireann over the years whether that be with Ber, Brian or Barry Cowen or Ger Connolly.”

He added: “I would like to be the next Fianna Fail TD for Offaly and in the Tullamore Municipal District we proved in the last local election when we got over 5,000 votes which is the biggest Fianna Fail vote right across the county. I have the support of my fellow councillors, Frank Moran, Decky Harvey and Ollie Bryant.”

Cllr Ormond, social inclusion manager with Laois Partnership, and a veteran of six successful council elections, said he believes there is a pathway to the Dail for him, even though two south Offaly representatives, Deputy Carol Nolan (independent) and Cllr John Clendennen (Fine Gael), will certainly be on the ballot paper.

“It's been an ambition of mine for a long number of years to move to the next stage,” he said.

His vote increased in each local election he contested and as a first time Dail candidate in 2020, he received 4,073 first preferences.

“I've learnt a lot from the last election and what's involved in a general election,” he remarked.

Offaly has traditionally been part of a two-county five-seat constituency with Laois, but on this occasion, as was the case in 2016, it is a stand-alone constituency which will elect three TDs.

Barry Cowen topped the poll on that occasion and was followed into the Dail by Fine Gael's Marcella Corcoran Kennedy and Carol Nolan, who was a Sinn Fein member at the time.

Deputy Nolan was 170 votes ahead of Fianna Fail's Cllr Fitzpatrick, who started his political career with the Progressive Democrats, on the final count.

Part of north Tipperary was included in the Offaly constituency in that election but the forthcoming Dail poll will be confined to those registered in the county of Offaly.

Deputy Nolan, Cadamstown, will be defending her seat and Fine Gael has selected Cllr Clendennen, the Kinnitty-based publican and glamping operator, for a debut Dail run.

Green Party Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, Geashill, is also in the field, having finished sixth in the Laois-Offaly five-seater in the last general election in 2020.

Cllr Aoife Masterson, who won a seat for Sinn Fein in the Tullamore Electoral Area in this summer's local elections, will be the party's Dail candidate in Offaly.

Cllr Fergus McDonnell, Edenderry, who returned to Offaly County Council this summer, is expected to fly the flag for Independent Ireland.

Another Edenderry man, former non-party councillor John Foley, who was also a member of Fianna Fail and a Dail candidate, has retired from politics and his supporters will be examining their options in the next couple of months.

Fianna Fail will attempt to balance geographical considerations in an effort to maximise the party vote.

The Tullamore area is the most populous part of the county and that factor alone could swing the nomination in Cllr McCormack's favour.

Both Cllr Fitzpatrick and Cllr Ormond are located on the edge of the county but will be stressing their track records in previous elections in the next few days in their conversations with Fianna Fail members who have a vote on Monday evening.

Political parties are now also subject to gender balance quotas and the need to ensure that at least 40% of candidates across the country are female means that Cllr Murray could be selected as a second candidate.

Some 400 party members are understood to be entitled to vote at the convention and they will watch with intense interest on Monday to see if Fianna Fail headquarters attempts to steer the outcome in a certain direction.