Fianna Fáil in Kilkenny a hotbed of dissidents

COUNTY COUNCIL PROFILE: KILKENNY:LIKE THE old Soviet Union's Communist Party on the eve of a Stalinist purge, Fianna Fáil in Kilkenny is bristling with dissidents. The Solzhenitsyn of the gulag is poll-topping TD John McGuinness, whose sacking as a junior minister by Taoiseach Brian Cowen last month still reverberates.

His son, Andrew (28), is one of the party’s leading candidates for a county council seat and, to judge from the positive reception he received on a canvass shadowed by The Irish Times, looks certain to be elected.

Mr McGuinness jnr is already a member of Kilkenny’s Borough Council and is simultaneously seeking re-election to that body on June 5th. A number of other “pro-McGuinness” candidates on the party ticket may, ironically, benefit from what one official admitted would be “an anti-Fianna Fáil vote”.

Fellow TD Bobby Aylward’s parliamentary assistant, the self-confessed “born and reared Fianna Fáil” Martin Carroll (Ballyragget), has resigned from the party and is running as an Independent. But he has not resigned from his job – a situation he agrees is “slightly unusual” – as he needs to “feed the family”.

Mr Carroll continues to work for the big-hearted Mr Aylward despite believing that Fianna Fáil “is not listening to the people on the ground” and mishandled “the medical cards issue”.

Other well-known Fianna Fáil activists who did not get through the new selection procedures imposed by party HQ have also resigned and are running as Independents: Joan Murphy (Thomastown) and Ann Blackmore (Piltown), both former councillors; and Johnny Eardly (Callan).

On a happier note for Fianna Fáil, the Aylward dynasty is fielding “the nephew” Eamon as a candidate in the Piltown area. He should be elected with the support of one of the country’s most formidable vote-gathering operations which is also mobilised for uncle Liam who is campaigning for re-election as an MEP.

Fine Gael and Labour combined currently have a majority on the county council and are expected to strengthen their positions. New Fine Gael hopefuls include Willie Barron and Joey O’Hanrahan (both Thomastown) and Fidelis Doherty (Piltown). Doughty party veterans who hope to be re-elected include Billy Ireland (Callan); Martin Brett (Kilkenny City); and Mary Hilda Cavanagh (Ballyraggett).

Labour lost its Carlow-Kilkenny Dáil seat at the 2007 general election and the search is on for a prospective candidate who is likely to be drawn from among victors in the council election. Among leading contenders are Seán Ó hArgáin (Kilkenny City) and Ann Phelan (Thomastown), both sitting councillors seeking re-election.

Malcolm Noonan (Kilkenny City) is defending the Green Party’s only county council seat. The sole incumbent Independent is Dixie Doyle (Thomastown), an ex-Fianna Fáil sheep farmer.

Sinn Féin is running four candidates and hopes to benefit from the publicity surrounding the Callan-based Kathleen Funchion, who is also running for Europe.

In addition to the county council, voters in Kilkenny city will elect 12 members to the borough council. There is likely to be much interest in the fate of one Eugene McGuinness (50) who is running for the borough council as an Independent - in defiance of family tradition. He announced the decision before his brother’s dismissal as minister of state for trade. Apart from his nephew, his opponents include Anna Michalska, a Polish Fianna Fáil candidate in the John McGuinness camp.