Candidates for by-elections:
Dublin West:
Éamonn Coghlan (
Fine Gael): Former international athlete (winner of the inaugural 5000m title at the World Athletics Championships in 1983 and missed out on Olympic medals by one place in both 1976 and 1980) who was appointed as an "independent" senator by Enda Kenny in 2011 but subsequently joined Fine Gael.
Loraine Mulligan (
Labour): Chairperson of the party, pressed into service when no-one else wanted to stand.
Ruth Coppinger (
Socialist Party): Also a sitting county councillor for the central part of the constituency and unsuccessful candidate in 2011. Likely favourite.
David McGuinness (
Fianna Fáil): County councillor for the central, more working-class, end of the constituency who contested the November 2011 by-election.
Paul Donnelly (
Sinn Féin): Candidate in the two 2011 elections and also running for the county council (as are McGuinness, Coppinger and O'Gorman).
Roderic O'Gorman (
Green Party): Candidate in 2007 and the two 2011 elections and council candidate in the southern, middle-class, end of the constituency.
Daniel Boyne(
Fís Nua): Candidate from a splinter group of the Green Party which contested the 2011 by-election with a different candidate and finished last with 40 votes, being outpaced by a couple of John Turmel-style perpetual candidates.
David Hall (Independent): The most credible of the independent candidates, former leader of a group lobbying for the interests of householders in negative equity and mortgage arrears and backed by Lucinda Creighton (ex-FG TD) and Éamon Dunphy (soccer analyst and political gadfly). Ex-member of FF.
John Frank Kidd (Independent): Seems to be campaigning on behalf of frontline public sector workers. Contested the 2011 by-election where he got 0.9% of the vote.
Seán Lyons (Independent): A county councillor in the 1990s (ex-FG?) who has unsuccessfully contested local and Senate elections since then.
Longford-Westmeath:
Gabrielle McFadden (
Fine Gael): Outgoing county councillor from Athlone and sister of the deceased TD. Running on her experience as her sister's constituency assistant.
Denis Leonard (
Labour): A county councillor from Kinnegad on the border with Meath, pressed into service when no-one else wanted to stand.
Aengus O'Rourke (
Fianna Fáil): Town councillor from Athlone, also running for county council. Son of Mammy. No more need be said.
Paul Hogan (
Sinn Féin): Town councillor from Athlone, also running for county council. Candidate at last election when he ended up runner-up but one for the last seat.
Kevin "Boxer" Moran (Independent): Another town and county councillor from Athlone, was FF up until the selection convention for the 2011 election when he was stymied for a party nomination. Ran as an independent and whipped Mammy's ass in Athlone but failed to garner enough support beyond Athlone to figure for a seat. Everything you would expect from the term "rural county councillor".
James Morgan (Independent): Young businessman and political novice from Longford town, running on a Longfordian Nationalist platform. Positioned to take a protest vote in the county but may not be well enough known to take full advantage of it.
Brian Fagan (Independent): Charity shop owner and charity volunteer from Mullingar town, also running for county council there and may possibly be able to appeal to the protest vote in north Westmeath.
John McNamara (Independent): Former army officer and (I think) briefly a member of SF from Drumraney (north of Athlone towards the Longford border) who is campaigning on an anti-austerity platform.
Dónal Jackson (Independent): From Athlone. Stood at the last election where he got a grand total of 61 votes. Slightly reminiscent of a golf-club bore, albeit not of the hang'em-and-flog'em variety.
There will be, probably at the same time, another by-election, this time in the constituency of Longford-Westmeath due to the sudden and unexpected death of Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden (RIP): www.rte.ie/news/2014/0325/604496-nicky-mcfadden/
