Election 2024: Smaller parties seek breakthrough in Claremorris

No of Seats: 6 

Candidates (13): Michael Burke (Fine Gael); Árón Ceallaigh (The Irish People); Tom Connolly (Fine Gael); Mark Devane (Independent Ireland); Richard Finn (Non-Party); Alma Gallagher (Fine Gael); Geraldine Kelly (Non-Party); Paul Lawless (Aontú); Stephen Nolan (Fianna Fáil); Patsy O’Brien (Fine Gael); Eamon Phelan (Sinn Féin); Damien Ryan (Fianna Fáil); Sandra Sweetman (Non-Party).

The retirement of Fine Gael’s John Cribbin after 25 years in local politics has created a vacancy in the Claremorris Local Electoral Area that several of the smaller parties will be looking to exploit. Aontú, for example, will have earmarked Claremorris as a potential seat-gain, especially as its candidate Paul Lawless put in a decent showing last time out by claiming 677 first preferences. However, Lawless will need to double that total to be in the shake-up for a seat.

In its bid to retain Cribbin’s seat, Fine Gael has selected a strong candidate in Alma Gallagher and she should put in a very big challenge for a seat. However, one of the unknown candidates in the race is Mark Devane, of Independent Ireland, the party of Roscommon-based TD Michael Fitzmaurice. If the opinion polls are to be believed, Independents are attracting one in five voters, so Devane could cause an upset or, at the very least, take a strong vote.

Remarkably, Fianna Fáil only has two candidates in this sprawling six-seater, which includes the towns of Claremorris, Ballyhaunis and Ballinrobe. Publican Stephen Nolan is hoping to win a seat for the party in Ballyhaunis while long-serving councillor Damien Ryan is based in Ballinrobe and he has a proven track record of attracting votes, regardless of whether his party is up or down in opinion polls. However, it seems surprising that Fianna Fáil has left Claremorris uncontested and that could benefit outgoing councillors Tom Connolly (Fine Gael) and Richard Finn (Independent). Both are veteran politicians at this stage and they will be difficult to dislodge, although Connolly would seem the more vulnerable of the two based on his 2019 showing.

Sinn Féin’s performance in the Claremorris area was very creditable in 2019 with local woman Natasha Warde taking 764 votes, and there were only 40 votes between her and the late Michael Carty for Fianna Fáil when she was eventually eliminated in the fifth count. Eamon Phelan carries the banner for Sinn Féin this time around, and if he can improve by 30 to 40% on Warde’s performance, he will be fighting for a seat.

Patsy O’Brien was the big success story of the last local elections, not just in Claremorris but in Mayo. He took the highest first-preference vote in the county (2,955), making him one of Fine Gael’s best performers nationally. O’Brien has since left Fine Gael but will still be expected to poll very strongly as an Independent.

The fifth outgoing councillor is Michael Burke, from Ballinrobe, who regained his seat in 2019 after suffering a narrow defeat five years earlier. With the departure of O’Brien, he is now Fine Gael’s standard-bearer in the southern part of the electoral area and will be fancied to be re-elected, although he won’t be complacent after what happened a decade ago.

Árón Ceallaigh is running for The Irish People party, while Sandra Sweetman (Claremorris) and Geraldine Kelly (Ballinrobe) will both be hoping to benefit from the swing towards Independents in recent opinion polls.