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FINE GAEL HAS confirmed that it will run four candidates in Mayo in the next general election, following a meeting of the party’s Executive Council on Thursday night.
Minister of State Alan Dillon, as well as Mark Duffy, Keira Keogh and Martina Jennings will all vie for seats in the constituency, now a five-seater since the boundary changes last year.
Outgoing Fine Gael TD Michael Ring announced that he will not contest the next general election in June, after 30 years as a TD in Mayo.
He’s one of 17 Fine Gael TDs around the country who have bowed out of the upcoming race.
Fine Gael currently holds two seats in the Mayo constituency. The party expects Minister of State Alan Dillon to hold his seat.
Keira Keogh will contest the general election after failing to secure a council seat.
Hopeful John O’Hara, a councillor in Ballina, unexpectedly decided last minute he would not be running.
Duffy, an Independent councillor in Ballina, has been seen as a left-field choice by the party.
Jennings, the CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice, will take a leave of absence from her job to pursue a Dáil seat.
It is thought that Fine Gael has chosen Jennings, who was not a member of the party until recent weeks, to block Claremorris councillor Patsy O’Brien who lives in the same village, Hollymount.
O’Brien was expelled from Fine Gael four years ago and topped the polls as an Independent in the local elections in June.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil is running two candidates in Mayo - Dara Calleary and Lisa Chambers.
Sinn Féin will likely run two candidates, one of whom being sitting TD Rose Conway-Walsh. She has expressed an interest in running alongside Charlestown-based county councillor Gerry Murray.
Last August, the Electoral Commission announced the addition of 14 TDs to the Dáil and a redrawing of constituency boundaries, giving Mayo an extra seat.
It had been a five-seat constituency from 1995 to 2013, when it was reduced to a four-seater with a significant part of south Mayo transferred to Galway West.
The timing of the election has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks.
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Great to see SF and Mary Lou are finished and she is getting the bullet in the coming weeks.
@Trump24: You’re in the wrong country, that’s the USA.
@Trump24: Like when you said 2 weeks ago they wouldnt get near FFG either?
Jesus, enough with FG’s obsession with sinn fein. I don’t like them myself & have never voted for them but enough is enough.
@Matt D: Someone senior in FG needs to take this lad aside & explain that there is a time to bite your tongue, a time to listen, a time to show humility & a time to speak honestly. I am no fan of SF, but surely, he could have let this go by, counting isn’t even completed ! His constant need for making news feeds & media is actually a turn off for people & he needs a little bit of reflection as his own cock ups have cost his colleagues & his party, many seats. Who is advising this lad, I know he has surrounded himself with people from Irish MSM, but Harris & his party & actually SF as well, might be better off getting ordinary people in to advise them, as they can’t seem to connect with ordinary people or how to deliver a message. Get some real life advisors Simon.
Just saying Sinn Fein makes him and Micheal Martin stiff.
It would be satisfying to see FG suffer, given their lies during the recession at a point when the people of Ireland were at their most vulnerable, and persistence with austerity taxes when the country is awash with excess tax take year after year.
Hopefully Gerry parks beside Simon every day in the Dail and smiles at him going in. Will be hilarious!
Looks like the “FFG” line has been overplayed. In so far as that entity exists, it seems on course to be by far the largest party.
@Terry McClatchey: Insofar as it exists, it will be the largest party? A politician wouldn’t put it better
They Don’t Get It…Reign In RTE and the Energy Companies. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
That’s right Harris keep snipping….
Wonder will Martin be dumb enough to say for a second time after an election he wont jump into bed with their partners for life FG or does FF and its leadership actually have the cop on to admit they are the same two cheeks and one wont survive without the other any more
Harris can spin this anyway he wants the knives will still be out for his tea boy backside……his gaff a week ago almost backfired badly, even leaky leo wouldnt have done that
@Patrick Newell: he should get no votes,
Haven’t seen a Fianna Gael surge either and all those massive problems will still be there if independents and parties are willing to sell their souls
Great to see all the Fianna Fail men getting elected, the country could do with real men like Fianna Fail men
@Fintan Pox: What country? FF has and continues to destroy Ireland
@Fintan Pox: your surname is apt
@Fintan Pox: good man the extra strength glue really taking ya to another level of deluded
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo:
We’ve never had it so good.
@Dave G Doe: how does a party that lost the election become a winner in literally anyone’s eyes ? How? They came third.
During the American election we were saying if Trump was the best that they had to offer they are mad. Now the Irish people have voted Harris AGAIN
This gimp scraped through on the 15th count in 2020. Can anybody who voted him please tell me what he has done in 4 years to deserve this huge vote?. It shows ,once again, how affluent voters truly do not give a damn about the rest of people and the bigger issues this clown and his party have caused. Homelessness,illegal immigration, hospital lists and young adults still living at home due to FFG policies prohibiting them ever buying a house are things that don’ bother his supporters. How stupid people really are.
Ya fine gael and fianna fails vote are 50% down in last 10 years, they had to join up and when the rest of the idiots die off they’ll have a lot less votes thank god. Wel done Ireland ye are clueless
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