JANICE BOYLAN HAS been selected as Sinn Féin’s candidate to contest the Dublin Central by-election. 

She was chosen at the party’s convention this evening, winning out over Gillian Sherratt. 

In a statement this evening, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said her name will now go forward to the Ard Chomhairle for formal ratification.

“The campaign starts now to elect Janice as the next TD for Dublin Central,” the spokesperson added.

Boylan is a long-standing councillor in the constituency and was selected to run alongside party leader Mary Lou McDonald in the general election in 2024. However, she was unsuccessful in winning a seat.

She was selected over Sherratt, who gained prominence while campaigning to get answers on the timeline of care provided to her son Harvey Morrison, and why a decision was made to remove him from a spinal surgery waitlist. 

Harvey had been removed from Children’s Health Ireland’s (CHI’s) urgent scoliosis surgery waiting list, without his family being informed. Harvey eventually had the surgery in December 2024, but he sadly passed away last summer. 

It is believed there was unhappiness from some party members that a candidate had been “parachuted” in to contest the nomination alongside Boylan.

Speaking about the matter last weekend, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told RTÉ’s This Week programme that there had been a “very, very lively debate” within the party membership over who should get the nomination.

Elsewhere, Fine Gael has opened the nomination process to select the party’s candidate for the by-election. The party’s selection convention is set to take place in the constituency on 23 March.

The by-election was triggered after Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe resigned to take up a position at the World Bank. 

Fianna Fáil has yet to select a candidate. Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, whose constituency is Dublin Central, told Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show last week that she would not seek the nomination to contest the by-election. 

The Green Party has selected Janet Horner as their candidate, while the Social Democrats has selected Daniel Ennis. 

Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin has been selected as People Before Profit’s candidate for the by-election. 

Ian Noel Smyth has been selected as Aontú’s candidate for the constituency.

The Labour Party is set to hold its selection convention next week, with Ruth O’Dea and Joanna Siewierska seeking the party’s backing.

In this constituency race, all eyes will be on gangland figure Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.

Hutch announced earlier this month that he will be contesting the by-election after he narrowly lost out on the fourth and final seat in the general election.

With reporting from Christina Finn