General Election: Battle awaits as Donegal's Dáil seats up for grabs

Twenty candidates, so far, are in the running for the five available seats in the Donegal constituency at the General Election on November 29.

Four of the sitting TDs - Sinn Féin pair Pearse Doherty, Padraig Mac Lochlainn, Fianna Fáil Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Independent Thomas Pringle - are all running again with Fine Gael’s Joe McHugh having confirmed his impending departure.

Donegal is not unlike other constituencies with the cost of living, healthcare and childcare to the fore in the minds of voters. Housing is another issue, exacerbated by the defective concrete blocks crisis, something that could swing the whole narrative of this election in Donegal.

For more Donegal General Election news and updates, click the image below to go to the General Election section on donegallive.ie

At the local election earlier this year, the 100% Redress party polled an impressive 7,400 first preference votes and returning four Councillors in the form of Joy Beard, Tomas Sean Devine, Ali Farren and Denis McGee.

While Charles Ward missed out in the Lifford-Stranorlar area, the Arranmore native who lives in Drumkeen is the candidate to carry the party’s badge into a General Election for the first time.

With over 7,000 homes in Donegal affected by defective concrete blocks, not to mention scores of community facilities and childcare premises, it is the number one issue on doorsteps.

Thousands of doorsteps on the canvas are blighted by defective concrete and there have been cracks in the hearts and minds of the occupiers given the frustrations with a scheme that has, by and large, been unfit for purpose.

The 100% Redress logo on the ballot paper will appeal to many.

Particularly that will be the case in Inishowen, which has an already interesting landscape given that two of the incumbents, McConalogue and Mac Lochlainn, are resident in the peninsula.

Mac Lochlainn won back his seat in 2020 when unseating Pat ‘The Cope’ having himself been usurped by the veteran Burtonport politician in 2016.

Both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil have added third candidates to their respective tickets in recent weeks having initially chosen a two-candidate strategy.

Fianna Fáil added Stranorlar-based teacher Claudia Kennedy, who was not one of the names before a selection convention, while Councillor Noel Jordan will join Doherty and Mac Lochlainn as a Sinn Féin candidate.

In 2016, Sinn Féin suffered when running a third candidate in Gary Doherty and will hope to avoid a similar fate.

Having polled just over 45% of the first preferences in 2020 - amounting to almost 35,000 number one votes - Sinn Féin are confident of retaining the seats of both Doherty and Mac Lochlainn.

McHugh’s already-confirmed exit means at least one sitting TD will not be returned. Senator Nikki Bradley and Kilcar businessman John McNulty, the Donegal senior ladies football manager, are vying to retain the Fine Gael perch for the Donegal constituency, but seem to be locked in a battle that could go long into the count weekend.

Fine Gael went from six Council seats at the previous local election to three this time around and the party is in need of a boost in Donegal. McHugh, it should be remembered, gained a lot of transfers following Martin Harley’s elimination last time out to take him over the line.

Frank O’Donnell, a Letterkenny man who is a former Chairman of Fine Gael in Donegal, is also in the mix just to add a further layer of complexity.

The return of Gallagher to the battle paper adds real political muscle to the fold, not to mention a sense of intrigue.

Gallagher continued working after losing his seat four years ago and has been putting in the long hours and hard yards in recent weeks as he looks to win a path back to Leinster House. There was a feeling of complacency among the Fianna Fáil ranks in 2020 that is unlikely to set in again and Gallagher will make a real fight of winning a seat back.

As a sitting Minister, McConalogue might ordinarily be forgiven for being supremely confidence, but not here in this climate. A public desperate to see an end to the many issues strangling it on a variety of levels have become angry at government.

McConalogue’s team will be minded that there have been high profile candidates in recent elections in Donegal with the likes of Gallagher and Mac Lochlainn well able to nod to their own experience. Mary Coughlan fell in 2011 with Cecelia Keaveney losing out in 2007.

Geography will come into play very much so, too. In the south-west, McNulty’s presence in the field will have given Thomas Pringle’s team an awakening. The Killybegs-based representative benefited from a swathe of transfers from Sinn Féin voters.

There has been an upward growth in voting numbers going to the likes of Castlefin-based Independent Niall McConnell, an anti-immigration candidate who was in the hunt for a Council seat in the Lifford-Stranorlar area until the fifth count and he has a base of 880 first preferences from there to build on.

Aontú’s Mary T Sweeney narrowly missed election in the Letterkenny area and has been very vocal on issues such as healthcare.

Donegal’s seats are very much up for grabs.

Donegal Constituency

Constituency population: 157,700
Seats available: 5
Outgoing: Pearse Doherty (Sinn Féin); Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Féin); Charlie McConalogue (Fianna Fáil); Joe McHugh (Fine Gael); Thomas Pringle (Independent)
Candidates so far (open until this Saturday): Nikki Bradley (Fine Gael), Nuala Carr (Green Party), Pearse Doherty (Sinn Féin), Carol Gallagher (People Before Profit-Solidarity), Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher (Fianna Fáil), Noel Jordan (Sinn Féin), Claudia Kennedy (Fianna Fáil), Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Féin), Charlie McConalogue (Fianna Fáil), Niall McConnell (Independent), Eamon McGee (Irish Freedom Party), Gerry McKeever (Independent), Kim McMenamin (Irish People), John McNulty (Fine Gael), Donna Murray (Independent Ireland), Frank O’Donnell (Independent) Thomas Pringle (Independent), Kevin Sharkey (Independent), Mary T Sweeney (Aontú), Charles Ward (100% Redress Party)