Battle lines being drawn for Offaly general election
Three Dail seats in county will be filled when voters go to polls
THE battle lines are already being drawn for the general election in Offaly with nine candidates declared in advance of the Dail being dissolved later this week.
For the first time in the history of the State, the entire county of Offaly is a stand-alone constituency and it will return three TDs to Leinster House.
The election, expected to take place on Friday, November 29, will also be notable as the first since 1965 without a Cowen name on the ballot paper.
Ber Cowen, Clara, started the family's Dail dynasty in 1969 and his son Brian Cowen continued it on the sudden death of his father in 1984 and went on to become Taoiseach.
Barry Cowen maintained the tradition after his older brother’s retirement in 2011 but is not defending the seat after his election to the European Parliament this summer.
Historically Offaly has been part of a five-seat Laois-Offaly constituency but in 2016 the counties were split and Offaly, with the addition of part of north Tipperary, was a three-seater.
That poll saw the election of Carol Nolan, the Cadamstown-based primary school teacher and she was re-elected in Laois-Offaly in 2020 as a non-party candidate, having stood for Sinn Fein in 2016.
Deputy Nolan, who opted not to join the new Independent Ireland party, is the only sitting TD in Offaly seeking re-election.
The departure of Barry Cowen to Europe left Fianna Fail seeking a new candidate and its first choice at a selection convention was the councillor from Tullamore town, Tony McCormack, who runs a printing business.
The party’s national constituency committee then added a second candidate, Edenderry woman Claire Murray, a nurse in a GP surgery in the village of Rhode, who won a seat on Offaly County Council in June in what was her debut election.
Her addition to the ticket resulted in another Fianna Fail hopeful, Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick, a farmer from Cloneyhurke, deciding to leave the party and run as an independent for what will be his third attempt to win a Dail seat. He was a Progressive Democrat before joining Fianna Fail.
The sole Fine Gael candidate is John Clendennen, a councillor, publican and tourist accommodation provider from Kinnitty.
Son of the well known former councillor Percy Clendennen, this is Cllr Clendennen's first time to run for the Dail as he hopes to regain the Fine Gael seat formerly held by Marcella Corcoran Kennedy. Ms Corcoran Kennedy lost out in the 2020 election after nine years in the Dail.
Pippa Hackett, Green Party senator and ‘super junior’ minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, will be a Dail candidate for the second time after coming sixth in the Laois-Offaly five-seater in 2020.
A native of Co Mayo who unsuccessfully sought the leadership of her party after the resignation of Eamon Ryan, she runs an organic farm between Geashill and Cloneygowan with her husband Mark, who lost the seat on Offaly County Council which had been won by his wife for the first time in 2019.
Sinn Fein’s candidate is Aoife Masterson, a new Dail candidate who was elected to Offaly County Council at the first attempt in June.
A Tullamore woman, she is a former lecturer who studied law who is now an employee of the Sinn Fein party.
A veteran public representative from Edenderry, Fergus McDonnell, will seek a seat for Independent Ireland. A councillor, former Bord na Mona employee and community worker who has previously been a member of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats, he was returned to the council after a 10-year gap this summer.
The most recent candidate to declare is Maureen Ward, who will represent Aontú, the party founded by former Sinn Fein TD from Meath Peadar Tóibín.
Maureen Ward, who is based in Tullamore, currently serves as the interim coordinator of Minceirs Whiden ('Travellers Talking'), a national organisation promoting Traveller voices and community dialogue.