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FINE GAEL POLITICIANS ARE “lining up” to replace Simon Coveney in the Cork South Central constituency, Taoiseach Simon Harris has told reporters.
The former Tánaiste announced on Wednesday that he will not be contesting the next general election and is “stepping out of politics”.
In the statement, he thanked party members in his constituency, saying: “Being elected for 26 years has been the privilege of my life. I will forever be grateful for the faith people in Cork South Central have put in me.”
As the political heavyweight moves aside, six Fine Gael politicians are believed to be vying to take Coveney’s place.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One this week about his departure, Coveney namechecked a number of people who were looking to fill his shoes, such as: Senator and Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann Jerry Buttimer, councillors Shane O’Callaghan, Des Cahill, Úna McCarthy and Jack White, and European election candidate and former Bord Gais CEO John Mullins.
Cork South Central is one of the most high-profile constituencies in the country, with Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Michael McGrath and Sinn Féin’s Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire all holding seats.
With the departure of McGrath to the European Commission, there will be another seat up for grabs, with many speculating that that McGrath’s brother, Seamus, is likely to throw his hat in the ring, having received the highest number of first preference votes in the country last month when he was re-elected in Carrigaline.
“My brother Seamus has indicated that he’s anxious to run, I think he’d be a fantastic candidate but there’s a process to go through and others may well put up their hand and seek to run for the party as well,” McGrath told the Cork Echo this week.
Though one Fine Gael seat is up for grabs with Coveney stepping back, Fine Gael are hoping to take as many as two seats in the newly-expanded five-seat constituency.
The nominations closed last night and the selection convention will be held on 23 July.
Coveney said there is a lot of talent in his own constituency, stating this week that it is time to give someone else the chance. Of the six that have voiced their interest, they are ambitious, smart and motivated, he said.
The outgoing TD has said he has made a point of not picking sides in the contest.
The Taoiseach commended Coveney on the work done in the Cork South Central constituency this week stating that as a result of it, “they are lining up to replace him”.
“There are many people who want to be the next Fine Gael TD or the next two Fine Gael TDs for Cork South Central,” said Harris, stating his party “will be putting forward a very competitive ticket in Cork South Central”.
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Colonial imperialist terrorists doing what they do!
@joe moody: Protecting people from terrorists that planted bombs in Shops , Pubs , Restaurants, Hotels . They didn’t care who they killed .
@Jack Moss: Balkymurphy massacre, Derry Bloody Sunday hasn’t really covered your comrades in arms in Glory. Don’t try to come here and claim some sort of moral high ground while defending British forces in Ireland or rest of world. Your national is currently supplying the means of genocide in Palestine.
@Jack Moss: how is that protecting people? It could’ve damaged the peace process and cost people their lives
@North Phone Bowe: Your hero McGuinness and his Derry brigade murdered 51 innocent from the Derry area . 28 of them Catholics . People like Catholic teen Kathleen Feeney shot through the head by the IRA . Spares us your crocodile tears for those killed on Bloody Sunday .
@Jack Moss: shankill butchers , loyalist collusion…etc etc.. U LOL crew only see one side always and it’s orange
@Pork Hunt: Nobody defends/ justifies the murders committed by loyalist terrorists though. It’s only Provo supporters who seem to forget that the Provos murdered more Catholics than the British Army during the Troubles. Revisionism is good business these days. I don’t forget the poll carried out at the end of the Troubles that showed both Catholics and Protestants in the high 80s% say there was no justification for the terrorism committed in their name.
@honey badger: it’s not surprising to see you in support of a brutal apartheid occupying force.
Both the IRA and Hamas have done heinous things, for sure but both of them are a result of unjust suppression and disenfranchisement of people, illegally. Neither of them grew in a vacuum.
If you brutally push people down, they will rise up with whatever means they have at their disposal. I’ve no doubt that Palestinians would love to face Israel down with a conventional army but Israel has seen to it that that can’t happen. You reap what you sow.
@Soundy Sound: Lovely word salad and whataboutery. What “unjust suppression, disenfranchisement, illegally” were the Catholic victims of their supposed defenders guilty of? Strangely, Israel/ Hamas has/ had zero to do with it.
@Pork Hunt: The Shankill butchers murder 9 Protestants .
@Soundy Sound: They didn’t rising up . The majority of Catholics were supporting non violent organisations like the civil rights movement and John Humes SDLP . The IRA did not represent the Catholic population of NI . The 26 counties was a 98 percent RC state. It political system was made up of Republican parties . 40 thousand Protestant fled the 26 counties from intimidation and murder during the war of independence. The Protestant population fell to 3 percent. All this is long forgotten. Ireland was not partition in 1921 . The UK was partition . Irish Nats gain 26 counties the UK lost 26 counties. The UK people and unionists just accepted it and move on . Violence has always been the first choice for republican organisations . They always see themselves as the victims in history.
@honey badger: There is literally no point in arguing with someone who’s starting point is claiming that the nationalist population in Northern Ireland were not discriminated against by the ruling system.
@Jack Moss: protected nobody, and in this instance, actively pushed propaganda that could have caused serious damage to a fragile peace process.
Actual state-sponsored terrorism from so called “security forces”
@Alan Roddy: The security forces had a 99 percent arresting rate . Over 25000 republicans were arrested and prosecuted for terrorism and criminality . Less then 200 were killed by the security forces over 25 yrs of the troubles . 3500 people were killed almost half of those were the security forces . In 69 NI was facing an all out civil war . The only thing that stop it going over the edge was the security forces . Over a 100 thousand people died in the three yr civil war in Bosnia . 3500 died in 26 yrs in NI . If it wasn’t for the security forces and emergency services nurses , doctors , paramedics, fire fighters that all stood in the face of terrorism the IRA would have succeeded in murdering tens of thousands more .
@Soundy Sound: What you mean to say is you can’t comfortably justify why the Provos murdered more Catholics than the British Army. The only place you heard there was no discrimination was in your own head. It’s an odd thing to throw out there. Discrimination was so bad that the provos had to kill more of their own people than the British Army.
RUC might’ve changed their name, but didn’t change their anti-Irish senior personnel.
@Uí Braonáin: If I remember rightly if you got a train from Dublin to Belfast the train was often stop before crossing the border on the recommendation from the RUC north of the border . People were put onto buses for their own safety to travel the rest of the journey because the IRA was constantly blowing up the rail line . They blew it 26 times in six months . Trains carrying people from the south came within minutes of being derailed .
British spy planes hover over Gaza daily passing information to Israel on which tent full of innocent defenceless women and children to blow up next
@Kevin O Brien: Are these the same spy planes that are collecting evidence of war crimes etc?
@Kevin O Brien: Ah! Come on now Kevin!!
Any article on the cop saying no iPas are unvetted , which he clarifies as fingerprinted as identified. Kids in transition year get more vetting for work experience. No comment from the cop on forced deportation , it’s just part of the process. What a joke.
It was a common tactic of the IRA to leave secondary devices to kill the people that attempted to help the injured . The Claudy bombings consisted of three car bombs left on a public street. Car bomb two and three were timed to go off a few minutes after the first bomb detonated . There purpose was to kill the people that ran out onto the street to help the injured of the first bomb . 9 died 6 of them Catholic .
@Jack Moss: Why do you keep bringing religion into it.
@Daniel Roche: People are living in some fairytale land that the IRA were defenders of Catholics which is untrue.
Pikes in the Thatch.
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