Nikki Bradley and Manus Boyle to take Seanad seats

Nikki Bradley and Manus Boyle have been appointed to Seanad Éireann.

Bradley, who was previously a Senator since last July, and Boyle, a Donegal County Councillor, have been appointed as one of five Fine Gael nominees.

Eleven appointments, six from Fianna Fáil and five from Fine Gael, will join the 49 who won election to the upper house of the Oireachtas.

The appointments of Bradley and Boyle come just after Fine Gael lost its TD in Donegal, a seat the party held for decades.

Last July, Bradley was appointed by then Taoiseach Simon Harris.

She stood as a candidate in the General Election, but was eliminated on the 14th count having taken 3,658 first preferences.

Senator Bradley was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, when she was 16 years old, and has had two hip replacements.

The adaptive adventurer and cancer survivor underwent rotationplasty surgery in The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham in 2022.

Previously, Senator Bradley has completed quite the list of feats, including abseiling off Fanad Lighthouse, climbing the Sólheimajökull glacier in Iceland, and finished the 2023 Vhi Women's Mini Marathon on crutches.

During the General Election count at the Aura Leisure Complex in Letterkenny, she caused a stir when speaking about what she called some “moaning and groaning” among the electorate over certain issues.

Two days later, she apologised saying:  “I want to clarify that how it came across was absolutely not how I intended it…I let myself down with how I worded everything.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I didn’t realise how it came across until I saw it back.”

Last year, Councillor Boyle, Operations Manager with Killybegs Stevedoring Ltd, was elected to Donegal County Council in the Donegal electoral area.

He took 1,274 first preference votes and was elected pom the 11th count.

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The son of former Fine Gael councillor and Mayor of Donegal John Boyle, Fine Gael said before the election that he was regarded as a “steadfast advocate for Coastal and Island communities” and noted that he had a “history of championing the industry's concerns to government officials”.