North Tipperary election heats up with two Fianna Fáil candidates and fresh faces joining the race

One of the three seats in North Tipperary is up for grabs in the 2024 General Election after Fianna Fáil's Jackie Cahill stepped down and a consistent local election poll topper from Roscrea, as well as several fresh faces on the ballot, have announced their intention to fill it.

After Tipperary North and South were united into a five seater single constituency for the 2016 and 2020 General Elections, the county has once again been split into two three-seater constituencies for the upcoming election.

One seat is up for grabs in both constituencies, with two sitting TD's fighting to keep their seats in North and South Tipperary. Fianna Fáil's Jackie Cahill announced his retirement from politics on health grounds - opening up a seat for what is expected to be a younger party colleague.

The local elections in June saw many Independent candidates top the polls, with 14 candidates elected. The two largest parties were Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with ten candidates elected each, with Labour next with three candidates followed by Sinn Féin at two and Workers and Unemployed at one.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Michael Smith secured the highest first preference percentage vote in the entire county of Tipperary in the summer local election and on Friday night received the nod from his party to pursue his ambition to represent his constituency in the Dáil.

Fianna Fáil held their selection convention, the last in the country, on Friday night in the Templemore Arms and Cloughjordan's Ryan O'Meara, a new Councillor who was elected in the Nenagh Municipal Area, also secured a nomination over the weekend, confirming Fianna Fáil's decision to run two candidates in the hotly contested North Tipp constituency.

The 29-year old Cloughjordan man secured the support of outgoing TD, Jackie Cahill, several Councillors on Tipperary County Council and the three Fianna Fáil Councillors in the Castlecomer electoral area beforehand.

The West Kilkenny area will vote in the North Tipperary constituency in this election and could play an interesting role in how candidates perform.

In the 1969 and 1977 general elections Fianna Fáil successfully won two seats in North Tipperary.

FRESH FACES

As well as the two sitting TDs, Labour's Alan Kelly and previous Independent poll-topper, Michael Lowry, greeting voters on their ballot paper at the end of November, there will also be several new candidates who have never before contested a general election.

Sinn Féin's Martin Browne, a Cashel native, will fight to keep his seat in the southern Tipperary constituency and in the north of the county have nominated Templemore native, Dan Harty.

Making his debut into politics the Templemore man said he wants to challenge the status quo in North Tipperary and offer a “genuine choice” on election day.

He feels a new direction is needed on housing, healthcare, childcare, immigration policy and the rising cost of living.

Fine Gael have nominated experienced sitting Councillor in the Nenagh Municipal District who comes from the Ballina/Killaloe area, Dr. Phyll Bugler - a consistent performer in local government who has proven herself with good results in three local elections.

Sitting Thurles Independent Councillor, Jim Ryan, announced his candidacy last week - an experienced local representatives with over 25 years of experience on the local authority. Bringing a bypass to traffic-choked Thurles town is a priority for Cllr. Ryan.

Roscrea based political activist Peter Madden also announced his candidacy last week and will contest the election as a member of the new National Alliance group.

The well known Roscrea man has long campaigned on several issues and was a founder of a group which attempted to restore Bus Eireann services to Roscrea which were lost during the cut to services during the pandemic.

Making her debut into politics, Iva Pocok will run for the Green Party and has said housing, transport and biodiversity are the major focus of her campaign.

She was early out of the blocks and the Cloughjordan native launched her campaign in March in her home village with Minister, Pippa Hackett.

While there has been no confirmation yet as to the exact date on which the general election will take place, over 500 people will contest the election and for the 2024 General Election there are more women candidates than at any other time in the history of the State.

No party will run enough candidates to allow them form a single party government. As of now, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil at 80 candidates each are short of the 87 neccessary to form a single party government in the next 174-seat Dáil.

Simon Harris said on Tuesday he will seek the dissolution of the Dáil this week after passing the Finance Bill, with all indications pointing towards Taoiseach Simon Harris announcing the date of the general election on Thursday - with the anticipated date on November 29th.