Sinn Féin to re-run Cork South Central selection convention

Sinn Féin is to hold a rescheduled selection convention to choose a candidate to run for the party in Cork South Central in the next general election after a vote to choose a candidate ended in a draw.

Cllr Chris O'Leary, a Sinn Féin councillor on Cork City Council, and Cllr Donnchadh O Laoghaire, a Sinn Féin councillor on Cork County Council, had both sought the nomination to run in Cork South Central.

Both candidates agreed to re-run the process at a date yet to be decided after the vote ended in a tie. The rescheduled selected will not take place until after the party’s Ard Fheis which is due to be held in Derry in March.

“The party is lucky to have two fantastic public representatives seeking the nomination,” said a party spokesman. “It was clearly a very difficult choice to make for all the members today.”

The vote was held by nearly 100 delegates.

Cllr O’Leary, who is based in Mahon, ran for the party in Cork South Central in the last general election, polling 5,250 first preferences or 8.2 per cent of the vote only to narrowly miss out on the last seat in what was then a five seat constituency.

Cllr O'Leary, who previously won a seat in 2004 in Cork South East Ward of Cork City Council for the Greens in 2004 and as an Independent in 2009, took a seat for Sinn Féin in the seven seat ward in 2014 with 1,295 first preference or 12.7 per cent of the vote.

Cllr O Laoghaire, who comes from Togher on Cork’s southside, was elected for the Ballincollig-Carrigaline area of Cork County Council for the first time last year when he polled 2,567 first preferences or 10.99 per cent of the vote to take the second seat.

The number of seats in Cork South Central have dropped from five to four since the last general election with the Sinn Féin nominee facing a tough battle against a number of high profile TDs, including Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael's Simon Coveney.

The other sitting TDs include Fianna Fáil's Finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, Oireachtas Health Committee Chairman, Jerry Buttimer of Fine Gael and Labour's Ciaran Lynch who chairs the Oireachtas Banking inquiry.

Elsewhere in Cork, Sinn Féin has chosen Cllr Rachel McCarthy to run for the party in three seat Cork South West where Fine Gael currently have two TDs, Jim Daly and Noel Harrington and Labour holding the third seat through Michael McCarthy.

Based in Bandon, Ms McCarthy won a seat for Sinn Féin on Cork County Council in 2014 when she topped the poll in the Bandon-Kinsale electoral area with 2,344 votes or 14.68 per cent of the poll to take the first seat in the six seat electoral area.

Ms McCarthy, who was the sole nominee at convention, spoke of her delight at being selected to run in Cork South West and her hopes of becoming the first woman TD for West Cork and the first Sinn Féin TD for the area since Michael Collins.

“The next general election will be one that will shape the political direction of this island for many years to come and I will go to the people of Cork South West with the message that there is a fairer and better way of governing,” she said.

“The interests of ordinary people can no longer take a back seat to the interests of the political elites and the golden circles that have brought communities throughout this state to the point of ruination.”