We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
LAST WEEKEND’S LOCAL and European elections pre-empted the resignation of Labour leader and Tainiste Eamon Gilmore.
The party was decimated at the polls, and will return to local government with just 51 councillors.
Part of the reason the party were punished so badly was their association with austerity policies that Labour would traditionally distance themselves from. As is often the case in coalition governments, the junior partner has borne the brunt of voter anger.
In many instances, those austerity problems and the ruination they visited on Labour in the polls are same reasons 29 councillors left the party since it went into Government.
But how did they get on in the elections? And did they do any better than the Labour cohort?
The ex-red brigade
Of the 29 who resigned, 18 ran again.
Nine failed to be elected, meaning half of the ex-Labour candidates were re-elected.
The nine successful former Labour heads were: Mae Sexton (Longford), David Hynes (Wexford), Tom Fortune (Wicklow), Shaun Cuniffe (Galway), Cian O’Callaghan (Fingal), Thomas Redmond (Kildare), Frank McBrearty Jr (Donegal), Paddy Bourke (Dublin City) and Dermot Looney (South Dublin).
Two of the unelected candidates had defected to other parties – Jenny McHugh to Fianna Fáil in Navan, county Meath and Damien Molyneaux to Sinn Féin in Newbridge, county Kildare.
Of the 11 who decided not to run: Tommy Stokes from Longford pulled out of the race because of financial commitments and Aidan Pendlebury ran for Mayor in Clonakilty but was unsuccessful.
Labour’s innings
Out of 186 candidates running for Labour in the local elections, only 51 were returned around the country.
This means that only 27 per cent of Labour candidates were elected.
So what?
Long story short, if you left the Labour party and ran as an independent, you were more likely to be elected again.
Obviously in an electoral system as complicated as Ireland’s, that isn’t the only determinant, but it is one that may worry the next leader of the party.
There are too many factors at play in any one contest to be sure, but would as many of the councillors who quit the Labour party have been elected if they had stuck it out? On this (admittedly rather shallow) analysis, probably not.
Additional reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The Electorate have the same capacity memory as as goldfish ….once around the bowl and you forget you were ever there, twenty three percent for FF proves it if proof were ever needed !!
Wow. What a headline.
I’d say it’s tabloid journalism – but you wouldn’t even see that in the Star.
And I don’t even like Labour.
That’s what the journal does. Puts up a big head with no substance below.
Labour are so toxic in Kerry that in the Tralee Electoral Area where the seats went from a previous 12 in the defunct Town Council , to a 8 Seat Borough type , being part of the overall Kerry County Council .
There were 2 outgoing Councillors , Terry O’Brien and Gillian Wharton Slattery.
It was totally obvious that retaining the 2 Seats now would be a very good performance .
In steps The Spring Dynasty Labour Party , who imposed a further ‘Runner’, Graham , brother of TD Arthur Spring , with zero record in Politics , but as a failed professional golfer , who had more recently been brought on to Arthur’s constituency Staff.
The effect of the interference was that, excellent outgoing Councillor Gillian Whaton-Slattery got zero assistance, from the local Spring ‘machine’
She finished bottom of the 14 Candidates , while Spring scraped the very last seat .
Wharton didn’t even attend the count, while Springs announcement of Election drew almost zero ovations or reaction in The Counting Centre.
The Spring’s toxic influence had struck again , combined with the faux pas since then of Arthur’s audacious threats of running for Labour Leader or Vice Leader , until he realised that he would be unlikely to generate even a Seconder from his own Party at National level !
He is the most likely of all the incumbent Kerry TD’s to lose his seat , in the upcoming General Election .
Labour toxic ?as toxic as a plate of Sellafield kippers I’d say
Along way from the days of Dan Spring… and in fairness to Dick he did some service.
very frightening Bill when you think about a criminal organisation like FF who is sole purpose is the destruction of the country through massive organised white collar crime.ANGLO IRISH BANK cost this country upwards on 100 billion but the fall out from the bank guarantee with no paper work and passed in the middle of the night and nobody held responsible,and with mass emigration suicide economic collapse we are left with only one option revolution not vote for these crims
Some service ? not a major company opened in Kerry under his time as tainste, one major factory closed in that time in tralee, he has cushy number now though like all politicians his nest is well feathered no matter what way the wind blows on election day.
Freeman – As a Labour ‘Jobs for the Boy’s’ appointment , as a ‘Director’ of AIB , Dick Spring attends a few short Meetings a year and for that bit of wallpapering he gets a further ‘State’ salary of €60k + on top of his Tanaiste and TD’s multiple pensions , other Directorship ‘Salaries’ & we cannot forget his Fexco Pension either !!!!
The Spring / Labour ‘style’ of Socialism is a credit to The Labour Party ?
Correction – Apologies- Tralee should read as a Nine Seat Council Electoral are and not as I stated !
no need to apologize….you are a freshly minted Provie….its bound to happen.
Here is why Labour is so toxic, just watch this video :Labour leader supports mullingar’s Columb Barracks:
http://youtu.be/YA6nhGFHzls
Here in Drogheda the people voted Both Labour Councillors back in so unfortunately a majority of the people do not think The Labour Party is Toxic.
Labour Cllr Paul Bell is Number 2 to Jack O’Connor at SIPTU and was the main man who forced Haddington Road on unexpected workers he told them the sky would fall if they didn’t support it what the same workers failed to realise is he earns €136,000 a year with SIPTU he also earned €68,000 last year as a Councillor so the man does not know the meaning of the word Austerity now thats TOXIC.
Anthony I think you’ll find Patricia king is the Vice President of siptu not Paul Bell
Anthony, if you are going to make a comment, please get the facts right. Paul bell is not number 2 in SIPTU. No where near it. Patricia king is. Jack oconnor earns €108 k as president of SIPTU. Paul bell earns far less than that. But hey, fcuk the facts. Have your rant if it makes you feel better
Paul Bell is strongly rumoured to take over from Jack O’Connor next Year while King may be Vice President she will never get that role and in relation to his salary he claimed €136,000 from SIPTU so his salary may be less but when u take into account expenses ect its the same thing his official salary as a Councillor is just €16,000 but he still took home €68,000
Derek – Do those kind of ‘Salaries’ , working as Union Officials not make one feel ill at the thought , that underpaid workers are supporting those type of outrageous salaries ?
Brendan Howlin has attempted a new assault on government transparency. The announcement slipped under the radar courtesy of the elections, which have devastated Labour.
“When Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin was being asked question after question last November about the addition of a new section to the FOI Bill 2013 he attempted to diffuse the row by giving the appearance of a climbdown…
There was no climbdown. It was merely a tactical retreat. Fees are being retained, and multi-faceted fees are still being introduced.”
http://thestory.ie/2014/05/22/it-hasnt-gone-away-you-know/
Howlin was forced to climb down in November in the face of heavy criticism, both domestically and internationally, from groups such as Transparency International and Article 19.
He appears determined to push though the measures that will further impair the transparency of one of the least transparent and least open governments in the developed world.
I think you will find nobody in Siptu earns that much.
How much is not much Joe?
http://kpswa.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/partnership%E2%80%9D-and-the-corruption-of-the-irish-trade-unions/
Didn’t get elected for Direct Democracy eh Anthony? It’s normal for right wing groups to tell lies in here.
Lies Sean. The right wing groups out in force. The Fools Group telling lies.
I seen this comment on Sunday morning and felt it was a bit spurious to say the least as I knew one point was not accurate . Very personalised and focused, so I as a good Irish citizen and always prone to check out what I read, I delved deeper. Now this took some time, a full day in fact, the work revealed a lot of information that Anthony Connor decided NOT to reveal…Why tell the full truth and damage an already angry man? Well here goes any way in the interest of truth and clarity.
Anthony Connor the author of this main thread ran in the local election in the same area as Paul Bell. The electorate voted and decided to give Anthony Connor 383 first preference votes and to give Paul Bell 1,411 first preference votes, the message there is the people preferred Paul Bell to represent them and voted accordingly.
I delved further; Anthony is a member and national organiser of Direct Democracy. He has a Facebook page and Twitter account promoting the party. I delved even further and found that during the election campaign Anthony Connor wrote a number of tweets and comments relating to Paul Bell, a fellow candidate in the election, some were a bit aggressive to say the least. I delved further and found that some of his fellow Facebook friends advised him to stop spending precious time persecuting Mr. Bell and concentrate on his own campaign. At this point I stopped delving as I like to leave some room for people’s dignity and good nature to kick in, in the hope that they are not all bad. I have always found this to be good advice, especially when one looks at the overall result relating to the two men’s election result as mentioned above.
This I feel it is the bane of Mr. Connor’s grief that he is not getting traction and has decided to projected this onto Paul Bell you may agree after you have a look at the links below
Have a look for yourselves at Anthony Connor’s Face book page, https://www.facebook.com/#!/Antzc16?fref=ts
for clarity this IS Anthony Connor facebook page, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a second Paul Bell page as he is mentioned so often on it !!!!!
https://twitter.com/antzc40 the twitter account seems mainly focused on attacking the Labour Party
Cheer up Anthony we all love you ….Really
Three years ago it was ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’… and now we’re talking about the annihilation of Labour – take note Sinn Féin the Irish electorate love pre-election promises we’ll hoover them up and believe them… its the delivery that’s the key.
The Labour Party has travelled a very long way from its principles and values. What offends me is the enthusiasm, even the relish, with which Labour embraced austerity measures.
As for the senior echelons if the Labour Party, they have acquired marvellous pensions and benefits for the betray of the people.
The Labour Party took its 30 pieces of silver.
At the next General Election, a hard core group of former Labour supports will match Labour canvassers so that we can contradict their lies and excuses.
Labour must be eliminated from Irish politics so that a genuine social democratic alternative can emerge.
Labour’s betrayal could be the start of a credible and moderate left of centre alternative.
I think it would be every bit as important Peter that people realise that FF and FG are two sides of the same coin and start voting along left and right lines instead of what side of the civil war their grandparents or great grandparents fought on
The only people that labour stood up for was the barristers when shatter was going to bring in laws to curtail this profession gilmore vetoed it at cabinet,the kings inn will be very sad to see their buddies go.
The Labour party is so toxic now ,
It has just entered the critical stage 3 melt down point.
Thank God thats the point of no return….
Top Cat, not a member of the Labour Party but I think it is unfair to paint the 5k Irish people who are as such a negative monolith.
I believe it is unfair, unwarranted and frankly silly.
I think anyone who claims that people only voted Sinn Fein as a protest against Labour is being very ignorant to the fact that Sinn Fein are a very well run party, they will set up constituency offices and really work hard. They are very good at keeping votes and building up the party. Labour lost core voters and preference votes why because they have burnt there bridges! Why would you vote for a party who completely lied to the electorate promised the sun,moon and stars stated that they would protect the most vulnerable in society and then get into government and do the opposite. They stood over the Haddington road agreement which infuriated civil servants(active and retired). A lot would have voted labour but not anymore. The government always state that they had no choice in certain matters well one issue Irish Water they certainly did have a choice(still do) and it will cost them again and again if they do not get this right and Sinn Fein will mop up the votes if they don’t
Remember that most of the electorate didn’t vote for SF – they voted against Labour. This will change VERY quickly.
Powerabbey startling info did they all tell you this on the way out of the polling booths you seem VERy sure
Bill – just listen!
Just as they voted against FF in last election and not for FG
Bill – Powerabbey is a one trick pony who can only focus on his hatred of SF at the behest of any discussion, on any subject .
O’Reilly, KKK and the amusing Richard Rodgers , are others whose brains don’t extend beyond their FG Master Classes, in Blueshirt propaganda !
My goodness! We don’t like the truth – do we? I was never aware that I hated anyone but the again I was never in SF.
Despite everything they’ve done, the point is they STILL got 51 people elected. Is Ireland a masochist society or what?
The ex-Factor
A similar analysis of ex FF councillors was presented in Saturday’s Irish times. All these ex-FF, ex-Labour, ex-FG candidates is introducing a new concept to Irish politics – the ex-Factor.
Yes. It’s an interesting (cynical?) phenomenon. I’d like to see a figure for how many “Independents” elected on “Independents Day” were actually ex-Factor contestants.
And then you have Limerick where, post-election, a clutch of three “Independent Fianna Fáil” councillors sprung up. #youredoingitwrong? Or are they the most cynical of them all?
I hope we have a similar article about every political party in the state- a worthwhile exercise. Each party has its own toxicity from Fianna Fail ‘ruining’ the country, Fine Gael ‘ruining’ the country, the tendency of small party annihilation in Irish politics – toxicity of power to smaller parties.. and the toxicity of the rise of Sinn Fein and what a coalition may do to their ambitions… and what going into power with them will do for the credibility of the proper political parties.
Proper political parties?
Proper political parties??
The electorate will rapidly dump the pyrite brains in Sinn Fein + The Looney Left when they see how politically
impotent they are.
Myles go on with you what sort of process goes on in your confused mind, God love you
Socialist policies don’t work. Never have and never will.
“We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession, and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting Government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and that in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step. Higher inflation followed by higher unemployment. We have just escaped from the highest rate of inflation this country has known; we have not yet escaped from the consequences: high unemployment.
James Callaghan, British Prime Minister, 1974, Labour Party Conference
“Now, gentlemen, we have tried spending money. We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises.”
“I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started.”
- Henry Morgenthau, US Treasury Secretary, November 10 1939
We now have the car crash that is the French economy.
How many times can an ideology fail, so completely, before the message gets home?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27602312
As long as reality can be substituted with fantasy, people just don’t want to know about notions of having to do with less when they see other people with more.
So capitalism works brilliantly? It was socialism and the left that crashed the economy with reckless gambling and lax regulation?
Ireland will become like Cuba if Sinn Fein get into power . The Celtic tiger becomes the Celtic snake
I thought Bertie was the ‘Celtic snake’?
Darren – Have you ever been to Cuba ?
Are you well informed about the well being , or otherwise of its Citizens , by Central American standards ?
Give us some true insight , rather then a US type propaganda catch all
anti-Socialist piece of rhetoric ?
How toxic is Labour? If they were a drink you’d be dead within seconds of swallowing it.
Could we now have an article about how toxic Fianna Fáil are? Lest we forget…
If you lie people tend not to vote for you!
The Labour Party was destroyed by water charges.
Many sitting Lab TDs will have a tough ride in the next general election, having lost any power base they had – Galway now has only 2 lab councillors, for example.
Have posted on the one Lab TD in Galway west (Derek Nolan) and the enormity or maybe impossibility of the task of being re-erected. It is no surprise that he supported Alex White on the “night oh the long knives”! If status quo had been maintained in the party, he was a definite goner.
Let’s change the party leader because we listened to the voter’s, but we will carry on with the same policies because we are puppets of fg and Europe. What’s the point, change lying git for another one.
The Labour party TDs and Senators all voted through the saveage cuts and heavy taxation policies of the last three years.It’s annoying now when you hear party Oireachtas members now trying to say they were against certain cuts such as discretionary medical cards.It also really amazed me that the party did not even bother to run a local election candidate in an urban area such as Dundalk and North Louth.This is even more surprising as one of the Labour Senators is from Dundalk .She was one of the Senators appointed to the Seanad by Enda Kenny.Senator Mary Moran did contest the general election in the North Louth area and did get a very good vote.She did come close to getting elected as a TD.It was the first time the party ran a candidate for the Dail from the Dundalk area for such a long time.I just fail to understand why the party failed to run candidates for the local elections given the fact Senator Moran did so well in the general election.In the next general election it remains to be seen if she will get as big a vote as she got in election 2012
Any troll who hides behind anonymity should be ignored any member who cannot understand politics should move to the gimme gimme parties. I support Joan 100 percent 50 fears a member and what I cannot understand fixed attitudes and nonsense issues blown out of proportion by believe nothing you hear and half of what you see.
Woof
have your say