This article is from page 12 of the 2014-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
SINN Fein and the Labour Party added new candidates this week to contest the Ennis local elections, and both parties are understood to be in talks with potential candidates for the West Clare Municipal Area.
With just over seven weeks until polling day Sinn Fein selected Corrovorian man Cathal O’Reilly to represent the party in the Clare County Council Elections in May.
A butcher by trade his family have been traders in Ennis for generations. “I suppose my grandparents would be the best known of my family. My grandmother was May Lyons whose family owned Lyons’ Bar at the top of Parnell Street and my grandfather was John O’Reilly who owned O’Reilly’s butchers shop at the bottom of Parnell Street,” he said.
“This is the first time I have run for election and I’m really looking for- ward to it. There’s a real buzz around the party and I’ve been delighted with the pledges of support I’ve received already. I’m also grateful to my comrades for selecting me.
“I care strongly about my home place. It’s terrible to see the state of not only Clare but the whole country. I want to be part of the fight back and recovery. I want a better future for my children. I believe Sinn Féin have the best policies to achieve that.”
Mike McKee, Shannon, is the only other Sinn Fein candidate declared to date, but it is understood that a West Clare candidate is to be announced in the coming week.
Meanwhile the Labour Party in Clare has added Dermot Hayes to the party’s list of candidates for the local elections in Clare.
The trade unionist and advocate for people with disabilities will join Seamus Ryan on the Ennis ticket. Mr Ryan was selected ahead of Mr Hayes at the Labour Party conven- tion last November.
Mr Hayes said he is being added to the ticket, as Labour is “getting a very positive response on the canvas and now believe that there is a good opportunity to get two candidates elected.
Mr Hayes comes from Kells, Corofin, from a family of 13 children. He attended Ennis Community College and, as a mature student, he studied Community Development in Galway and Maynooth Universities. He has lived in Ennis since 1974 with his wife Marian and two teenage daughters.
The Labour Party in Clare is also running a candidate in the new look Shannon Municipal Area in the form of County Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald.
There are approximately 25 candidates running in the Ennis municipal Area for eight seats, to date, and an estimated 11 in the Shannon area for six seats.