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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Dr Michelle Maher, Programme Manager, See Her Elected; Mairead O’ Shea, Communications Manager, See Her Elected; Kathleen O’ Meara, Public Affairs Consultant for See Her Elected (former Senator and Co
See Her Elected, the award winning, Government funded programme, has launched a Live Local Elections Tracker, which calculates that a total of 677 female candidates will contest this year’s Local Elections.
The organisation has welcomed the fact that a record number of women will put their names on ballot papers on June 7 due in part to their training and support which has helped provide a gateway for women in rural Ireland into local politics.
Following the close of nominations, a total of 677 women have declared their intention of running as local election candidates which accounts for 31% of the overall number of candidates. This is a marked increase since 2009 when female candidates accounted for just 17.2% of overall candidates and also in 2019 when women made up 28.4% of overall candidates.
In Longford 27%, or ten of the thirty-nine candidates are female - Mandy Larkin (The Irish People), Francesca Pawelczyk (Independent), Catherine Joseph (Green Party), Cllr Uruemu Adejinmi (Fianna Fáil), Cllr Peggy Nolan (Fine Gael), Sadia Athar (Independent), Alicia Carberry (Independent), Maura Greene Casey (Independent), Susan Murphy (Fianna Fáil) and Marett Smith (Fianna Fáil).
Programme Manager with See Her Elected Dr Michelle Maher said that the record number of women running in this year’s local elections demonstrates the wonderful success story of See Her Elected and the creation of a gateway for women in rural Ireland into politics.
CEO of Longford Women’s Link, Tara Farrell said, “Currently only 26% of councillors in the country are women but with a record number of women running in this year’s local elections we are hoping to see a shift in the dial with an upwards trend. However, it is important to point out that this stark under representation of women in local government is a deeply entrenched pattern over many decades so it may take a number of election cycles to reach any sort of 50/50 parity.”
Ms Farrell added, “Supporting women to engage with local democratic structures in rural communities has always been a key focus of Longford Women’s Link and LWL is very proud to manage the delivery of the SHE Programme.”
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