This article is from page 14 of the 2014-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CATHAL O’Reilly, the candidate denied by Sinn Fein less that 48 hours before he was due to stand in the Ennis Local Electoral Area for them, still managed to secure 392 votes and poll stronger than sitting councillor Brian Meaney (FF).
Senior members within the Sinn Fein Party in Clare maintain how ever that his vote would have been significantly higher had his “resignation for Sinn Fein not been accepted” on Wednesday.
“We were looking at different figures to that. To me that was the core vote that we could have got had we run a paper candidate and not had a campaign around it. We were garnering more support, certainly the figures we were talking about were higher than that,” said Director of Elections for Sinn Fein Finbarr MacGabhann.
The Ennis butcher, was forced from the party after disparaging comments he posted to Facebook three years ago about the Traveller community, people working in particular shops and other groups, were brought to the attention of the party.
Mr O’Reilly’s name still appeared on the extensively long Ennis ballot paper as the Sinn Féin candidate, but by then the party said he was no longer one of its members.
Mr MacGabhann said Sinn Fein was surprised by the comments.
“It was a shock. To see the things he said, the things he said about people, about minorities, about people going about their daily life in town was a shock.”
It did not affect the other two candidates running in West Clare and Shannon, as they were able to compartmentalise their campaign, he said.
Mike McKee was elected to the Shannon area for Sinn Fein, while first time candidate Noeleen Moran received a first preference vote of 1,023 out of West Clare.