This article is from page 12 of the 2013-11-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
TWO of the Labour Party’s local election conventions will be held in the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, on Thursday, ahead of the party’s conference at the weekend.
Two candidates are expected to be selected from the new look Shannon constituency, with one candidate to be selected in Ennis.
Shannon has always provided a strong base for the Labour party with two members currently on the town council.
On Thursday, the party’s only county councillor Pascal Fitzgerald and current Shannon town councillor Tony McMahon will go before convention, with both expected to be selected.
The contest will therefore be for the Ennis Municipal District with two contenders in the race – current vice-chairperson of the party Seamus Ryan and long-serving member Dermot Hayes who began his political interest with Democratic Left.
Up to 55 members will vote to decide which of the two men will contest the election in the Ennis area.
A Labour candidate was elected to the Ennis Town Council in 2009, Paul O’Shea, but he later left the party in protest and declared as an Independent town councillor.
Meanwhile the party conventions for the West Clare area and Killaloe will not be held until after Christmas.
Names such as Darren Hayes, now living in Liscannor, have been mooted for the western constituency.
Killaloe is proving more difficult however, as the sitting Killaloe councillor, Cllr Fitzgerald, is forced to contest the Shannon area election this time around due to a change in the boundary.