European Election 2014 - Republic of Ireland

[Devonian]

Found this list of candidates confirmed so far for the 2014 Euros in Eire

adriankavanaghelections.org/2013/09/25/2885/

Now that the new European Election constituency boundaries have been decided on, in this post, I will be detailing the names of the candidates for next year’s European Elections contests, by constituency. As new candidates are confirmed between now and the election itself, I will be updating this post to include their names.

Dublin constituency (3 Seats):

Fine Gael:

Fianna Fail:

Sinn Fein: Lynn Boylan (Lynn Ní Bhaoigheallain)

Labour Party:

Green Party: Eamon Ryan

Socialist Party: Paul Murphy

Socialist Workers Party: Brid Smith

Others:

North constituency (4 Seats):

Fine Gael:

Fianna Fail:

Sinn Fein: Matt Carthy

Labour Party:

Green Party:

Socialist Party:

People Before Profit:

Others: Ronan Mullen

South constituency (4 Seats):

Fine Gael:

Fianna Fail:

Sinn Fein: Liadh Ni Ria

Labour Party:

Green Party:

Socialist Party:

People Before Profit:

Others:

[Devonian]

Some info here about Fine Gael's possible candidates

WICKLOW TD SIMON Harris is in the running to be sitting Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly’s running mate in the redrawn Ireland South constituency at next year’s European elections.

Harris is among a number of Fine Gael members who are currently considering seeking the party’s nomination in the 10-county South constituency, where sitting MEP Kelly will be hoping to retain his seat and the party hopes to add another.

Fine Gael is hoping to win two seats in the constituency as part of a five-seat strategy in next year’s elections.

Wicklow TD Harris’s potential candidacy would be based on his youth and potential to attract urban support. This would theoretically act as a perfect complement to Kelly, an experienced former GAA president, whose support base is further west in the constituency and in largely rural areas.

Harris, who turns 27 next month, is the youngest TD in the Dáil and was one of three Fine Gael candidates elected in Wicklow at the 2011 general election.

He is now among a number of party figures who are said to be considering running in the new enlarged constituency. Though he, like others, has not yet made a firm decision on whether to run.

Another Wicklow deputy, Agriculture Committee chairman Andrew Doyle, is also being mentioned as possible candidate in next year’s elections.

Other names that have been mentioned include Senator Deirdre Clune, a former TD for Cork South-Central, and outgoing Irish Farmers’ Association chairman John Bryan.

Another sitting TD, Wexford deputy and government chief whip Paul Kehoe, has also been mentioned but is not believed to be seriously interested in running for Europe.

Fine Gael wants to secure five of the 11 available seats in the European Parliament, two in four-seat South, two in four-seat Midlands North West (MNW) and one in three-seat Dublin.

While Jim Higgins and Mairead McGuinness expect to run in MNW, the party faces a decision over who to field in Dublin, where Gay Mitchell’s departure creates a vacancy that could be filled by current junior minister Brian Hayes.

He has indicated his interest in the nomination but has made no firm declaration yet.

Selection conventions are expected to take place in January, but no dates have been confirmed as yet.

www.thejournal.ie/simon-harris-fine-gael-european-elections-1180394-Nov2013/

[Merseymike]

I have a feeling we might see a fair few independent plague-on-all-your-houses candidatures. And some may win given the electoral system

[tricky]

I'm pretty sure Marian Harkin will stand again as an independent but she isn't a 'plague on all your houses' candidate just a good MEP who works hard for her area and is a centrist Liberal.

[tricky]

Nov 26, 2013 14:02:59 GMT @trident said:

Nov 26, 2013 12:02:36 GMT tricky said:

I'm pretty sure Marian Harkin will stand again as an independent but she isn't a 'plague on all your houses' candidate just a good MEP who works hard for her area and is a centrist Liberal.

I'm surprised to see you aren't rooting for your ELDR colleagues in Fianna Fail!

ALDE has two of the three seats in the current constituency in Marian and Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher. Long live Irish Liberalism!

[Richard Allen]

For the record, last time round the seats won were

FG: 4 (one in each constituency)
FF: 3 (missed out in Dublin)
Lab:3 (missed out in North West)
Soc:1 (Dublin)
Ind:1 (North West)

[Richard Allen]

Nov 26, 2013 16:56:20 GMT tricky said:

Nov 26, 2013 14:02:59 GMT @trident said:

I'm surprised to see you aren't rooting for your ELDR colleagues in Fianna Fail!

ALDE has two of the three seats in the current constituency in Marian and Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher. Long live Irish Liberalism!

It is incorrect to type 'the Cope' because Pat the Cope Gallagher is his actual name.

[tricky]

Nov 26, 2013 17:40:48 GMT Richard Allen said:

Nov 26, 2013 16:56:20 GMT tricky said:

ALDE has two of the three seats in the current constituency in Marian and Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher. Long live Irish Liberalism!

It is incorrect to type 'the Cope' because Pat the Cope Gallagher is his actual name.

Agreed but I thought he put the '' himself?

[erlend]

Just went to research. His personal wesite is not up so no joy there. The FF page for him has no quote marks.

[irish observer]

Nov 27, 2013 21:09:36 GMT erlend said:

Just went to research. His personal wesite is not up so no joy there. The FF page for him has no quote marks.

Several people in places like Donegal have nicknames that they have inherited from their father or grandfather and form part of their christian name. Pat the Cope is his correct christian name. His grandfather was a major figure in founding the co-operative movement in County Donegal and the nickname stuck. I went to a university where approximately 1/5 to 1/4 of the intake were from Donegal.

FF have 1 seat in North-West with Gallagher but will need to run a second candidate out of the Meath, Kildare and Laois-Offaly counties.
FG have 1 seat which I would give to McGuinness. Kenny does not like Higgins and he will not lose sleep if he loses out.
SF have the organisation and enough support for a seat. Doherty polled well the last time.
Harkin is a good MEP but will lose out. Does Childers run here? If she does she loses.

1 FG, 1SF and 1 FF.

In Ireland South

FF have 1 seat with Brian Crowley and could have been competitive for a second with Aylward running. He is now retiring and a convention will pick the second candidate. Rumours favour Seán Connick the former Wexford TD, who like Crowley is also wheelchair bound.

FG have 1 seat with Kelly, well connected in the GAA and also related to Kenny. Rumours are Deirdre Clune the Senator may run, too near Kelly I would have thought even though she is in the Barry's tea dynasty. I think it will be a TD from south Leinster but not Simon Harris. They have a good shot at 2 seats on current polling.

SF have selected a descendant of Seán O Riada the famous composer to contest but she is not well known other than her surname. They had sought some hurlers unsuccessfully. SF's weakest constituency but they are in the running.

Labour's Phil Prendergast was co-opted. She isn't known, especially in Leinster, she was a former Senator before appointment. She is toast. I don't think Childers will run here.

2FG 1FF 1SF. I am basing this on Labour transfers favouring SF more than FF though there is less venom than there was in 2011 and may re-evaluate when candidates are known.

Dublin

Brian Hayes is supposedly going to run along with former world championship gold medallist Senator Eamon Coughlan. Hayes will fillet him much as I despise the little thatcherite.

Murphy was co-opted to Higgins' seat and will not hold because there is not socialist unity comrades. The trots are putting up a candidate to split the vote, a good Cllr Brid Smith who is backed by Boyd Barrett and other TDs. This together with the fall in the Labour vote will allow SF to regain a seat here. Their candidate is unknown, however. She ran in Kerry South in the last general election and got a derisory vote, I assumed she was from Kerry, but she got this nomination because she's shacked up with Eoin O Broin, now a Cllr in Lucan, a former Cllr in Belfast, and one of SF's big brains in the Dáil.

Labour's Emer Costello was a co-optee and suffers from name recognition. I think she will lose and will be affected as Childers runs here. She used be a Cllr in Blackrock. Labour might be saved if a Cabinet Minister runs in place of Emer but that'd be a messy by-election if successful.

FF will be advantaged by this left debacle in my opinion if we run the right candidate. Forget a former Minister like Hanafin. Instead run a clean cut articulate guy like Tiernan Brady the spokesperson of GLEN, the Gay Lesbian and Equality Network and a friend of mine. He has been a Cllr himself, in the Bundoran area for several years. 1FG 1SF 1FF.

I will re-visit in due course now freely knock me down.

[irish observer]

FF have been in some sort of informal talks with Peter Matthews, the former banker and former Dublin FG TD. He appears a lot on tv and is currently a member of the Reform Alliance. He has said he will run if given a candidacy for Europe in Dublin. FF have said he has a month to decide.

[irish observer]

At the FF Convention for Dublin at the weekend the members selected Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick, the leader of FF Cllrs on Dublin City Council as their candidate for Europe. Brady was second and Geraldine Feeney, a former Senator and a relic of the Cowen era, came in third. This is actually a strategic choice given her gender and the known public fact about her family's and her own bitter public rivalry with Bertie Ahern in the Dublin Central constituency. Indeed Ahern publicly shafted her in the 2007 General Election contest. Her people have now wrestled control of the organisation in that area from his former followers. In this respect she can project a positive image and is also a sympathetic figure.

As I predicted previously Hayes has declared he is running for FG in Dublin. I don't know if he will go alone or with someone. And as I predicted Nessa Childers has also declared for Dublin as an Independent.
www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/hayes-to-contest-dublin-constituency-for-fine-gael-1.1671987

The Childers declaration, on top of the split in the far left vote, and the weak Labour co-optee, basically guarantees SF a seat even though their candidate is a non-entity. This fractured vote also assists Fitzpatrick, who is transfer friendly, and who I think will get the last seat as a result.

Re Munster I'm not hearing great things about the SF candidate so want to reduce their possibilities of a gain their. In fact that may actually prove Labour's best chance of a hold. Still waiting for news on second FF candidate who can't be discounted either. Connick has been selected to run for Wexford County Council again for New Ross LEA. No news of a strong Independent here as of yet.

[Devonian]

Confirmed Fine Gael candidates

Midlands-North-West : Mairead McGuinness MEP, Jim Higgins MEP

South : Sean Kelly MEP, Deirdre Clune

Fine Gael Cork Senator, Deirdre Clune, has said she is proud to accept the challenge of securing a second seat for Fine Gael in the Ireland South constituency. Senator Clune was speaking after she was nominated alongside Sean Kelly MEP to contest the European Parliament elections for Fine Gael on the 23rd of May.

www.finegael.ie/latest-news/2014/clune-accepts-challenge-o/index.xml

[irish observer]

FG are having difficulties getting a candidate from South Leinster. Personally I think a 3 candidate strategy in Munster is too many but what do I know. A lot of their preferred candidates have backed out due to the imposition of this including John Bryan (recently IFA President), John-Paul Phelan from Kilkenny and most recently John Deasy from Waterford. They are now looking at Andrew Doyle and Simon Harris (both Wickla/Wicklow).

Regarding my initial statement wrt Ireland North-West this constituency is a 4 rather than a 3 seater so FG will get 2 seats. FF have 1 and the last is between SF and Harkin. I favour SF though Harkin is a strong contender.

[Devonian]

Feb 18, 2014 21:45:02 GMT irish observer said:

FG are having difficulties getting a candidate from South Leinster. Personally I think a 3 candidate strategy in Munster is too many but what do I know. A lot of their preferred candidates have backed out due to the imposition of this including John Bryan (recently IFA President), John-Paul Phelan from Kilkenny and most recently John Deasy from Waterford. They are now looking at Andrew Doyle and Simon Harris (both Wickla/Wicklow).

Regarding my initial statement wrt Ireland North-West this constituency is a 4 rather than a 3 seater so FG will get 2 seats. FF have 1 and the last is between SF and Harkin. I favour SF though Harkin is a strong contender.

Simon Harris will be the third candidate for the South constituency. The Fine Gael Ard Fheis on March 1st confirmed that their candidate line up for the Euro elections will be


Midlands-North-West : Mairead McGuinness MEP, Jim Higgins MEP

South : Sean Kelly MEP, Deirdre Clune, Simon Harris

Dublin : Brian Hayes

[Tony Otim]

2009 Results.

Ireland lost a seat in 2009 and loses a further one this year:

Fine Gael	29.1%	+1.3%	4seats	-1	EPP
Fianna Fail	24.1%	-5.4%	3 seats	-1	ALDE
Labour	13.9%	+3.4%	3 seats	+2	S&D
Sinn Fein	11.2%	+0.1%	0 seats	-1	GUE-NGL
M. Harkin (Ind)	4.6%		1 seat	nc	ALDE
Socialist	2.7%	+1.4%	1 seat	+1	GUE-NGL

The other lost seat was independant Kathy Sinott.

This time round Sinn Fein will almost certainly be back, largely at Labour's expense and the Socialists are unlikely to hold on.

[Devonian]

Opinion poll from Millward Brown for the Ireland South and Midlands North West constituencies

www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/sf-on-course-for-euro-election-victories-but-fgs-kelly-faces-defeat-30220401.html

Poll for the Dublin constituency to be published tomorrow

[Devil Wincarnate]

I'm beginning to wonder if, come a nuclear winter, the cockroaches will be minding their own business, assuming that all other life has been extinguished.  And then a month later, up pop Fianna Fail.

[iainbhx]

Apr 26, 2014 9:48:31 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

I'm beginning to wonder if, come a nuclear winter, the cockroaches will be minding their own business, assuming that all other life has been extinguished.  And then a month later, up pop Fianna Fail.

To find that the Healy-Rae's have already had the tarmac laid for the cockroaches.

[neilm]

For free, in return for gifts of caps.