Sinn Féin in Mayo vow to 'bounce back' from election woes

It was a hugely disappointing Local Elections in Mayo for Sinn Féin.

Running its highest-ever number of candidates in the county with nine in the six electoral areas, the party managed to take just a single seat - outgoing councillor Gerry Murray who has been a member of Mayo County Council since 1999.

John Sheahan was desperately unlucky not join Murray in Swinford but elsewhere the party was largely out of the running in every constituency. Several candidates, including Donna Hyland in Castlebar and Rosaleen Dixon-Lally in Belmullet, had been hotly tipped for election, but Sinn Féin’s Mayo performance mirrored the national picture.

“The bottom line is that we were hoping to make change on Mayo County Council,” said Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh.

“From my point of view being a TD with only one councillor is extremely challenging. Because my competition has 10 councillors with 10 budgets across the county,” she added.

Cllr Murray will be on his lonesome again in Aras an Chontae. He said the narrow margin of defeat suffered by his running mate John Sheahan and issues with the stamping of ballot papers in Swinford was hard to take.

“What was disappointing is not just losing it by the one vote but 10 or 12 of John’s number one votes were discounted because they weren’t stamped. I understand that would be higher than usual and the highest of any of the candidates,” said Cllr Murray.

He said it was always going to be a difficult task for his party colleagues to unseat sitting councillors.

“As a councillor myself, I understand how difficult that is, because a sitting councillor has significant resources over the five-year period. We have significant discretionary funding as well, there is a significant war chest there for each councillor. I knew that it would be difficult and a national bounce would be needed to deliver at least three or four councillors to Mayo County Council,” said Cllr Murray. “There are no dramatic changes in the personnel on council. That tells its own story."

Cllr Murray said a greater emphasis should have been placed on local issues rather than national policy in some of the party’s literature.

“The canvas cards reflected more national policy than local policy and did not give enough scope or room to local candidates to outline their vision. That didn’t really matter to me but for a new candidate they need a lot more space to outline what their plans and visions are. I think that was a mistake."

Deputy Conway-Walsh said the party "did a national campaign for a local election". She expects that many of the defeated candidates will consider running again.

“The candidates in the main have not been put off and you will see a lot of the same candidates on the ballot paper again in five years times,” she predicted.