This article is from page 3 of the 2006-07-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE 2007 general election is likely to be one of the toughest fought in living memory with four Fine Gael candidates now on the ticket.
In an unprecedented move, the party’s Executive Council decided to add Councillors Joe Carey and Madeleine Taylor-Quinn to the party’s General Election ticket, which already included Deputy Pat Breen and Cllr Tony Mulcahy following a contentious convention, last May.
Already unrest is emerging within the party at grassroots levels, with fears of losing the current Fine Gael seat.
A party poll last Christmas showed an increase in Fine Gael popularity in Clare and the possibility of securing the coveted second seat.
But the addition of the two names has left local delegates screaming blue murder amid claims that the current seat held by Pat Breen could now be in danger.
Disgruntled members of the party have blamed the selection process and weak leadership for the large number of candidates.
At the national conference in Athlone, the party leader Enda Kenny tried to revert back to a selection process that would allow a number of delegates from each branch select the candidates. He was narrowly defeated in a vote, which meant the oneperson one vote method introduced six years ago remained. During the last year, there was a 2,000 per cent increase in Clare membership to the party, resulting in a large attendance at the convention in the West County Hotel.
At the convention Joe Carey, the son of former TD Donal Carey, was just a few votes away from being selected making him a likely third candidate.
But a promise made to Cllr Taylor-Quinn, coupled with her front bench experience and polling in the European Election meant the Fine Gael party had a difficult decision to make.
It is believed Mr Kenny promised the former TD a place on the ticket if she ran in the European election, a promise that he did not renege on last week.
In a statement this week, sitting TD Pat Breen said he accepted the decision of the National Executive regarding the fielding of four Fine Gael candidates but said the decision made the party’s task of winning an extra seat in Clare “infinitely more difficult”.
When Fine Gael last suggested running four candidates in the fourseat constituency, it failed to return any TD. In 1948, a sudden election was called, so party leader General Richard Mulcahy rushed through a convention in the Queen’s Hotel. The leader told the small gathering of delegates assembled for the convention that he had four “excellent candidates” and he intended to run all four. Among the line up was son of the late TD Charlie Burke from Whitegate, Eddie Monaghan a solicitor from Ennis who was defeated in a bye-election two years previously, Colonel Austin Brennan and Bill Murphy from Ennistymon. Bill Murphy withdrew his name a few days later, believing it to be a joke and the other three went on to contest the election, but to no avail. Instead Eamon de Valera and Sean O’Grady were returned for Fianna Fáil, Paddy Hogan took a seat for Labour and Tom “The Bonesetter” Burke took the fourth seat as an Independent. But, while members within the Fine Gael Party may fear this as a bad omen, they take some comfort that in 1948 the Fine Gael Party was returned to power under Cosgrove.
Almost 60 years on, a dogfight is predicted as four candidates take to the hustings.
Cllr Joe Carey who trebled his vote to 1,939 first preferences, the highest vote ever recorded for a local election candidate in Clare, will be hoping to attract the youth vote.
“I am a young, enthusiastic, energetic candidate who will devote all my energies to delivering for my number one concern – the people of County Clare,” he said adding he was honoured and delighted to have been selected by Mr Kenny.
So far Cllr Taylor-Quinn is the only female candidate to have announced an intention to run in the next election.
“At next year’s General Election, the people of Clare will have the choice to vote for a woman candidate. For those who say that women’s voices are heard when Government makes its decisions, I point out that just 13 per cent of TDs are women. That figure is so low that it places Ireland on a par with countries in sub-Saharan Africa,” she said.