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GE2024Running matesMORE THAN HALF of Fine Gael’s TDs are not running this time around, with some big political names including Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Heather Humphreys bowing out.
Michael Creed, Richard Bruton and Charlie Flanagan are also among those who won’t be seeking re-election.
The Journal has previously compiled a list of the 18 Fine Gael TDs standing down - here’s a rundown of the candidates the party has selected to run in their place.
There’s a few familiar names in the mix, as some relatives of retiring TDs step forward to try and hold onto these seats. The party has also selected quite a few long-serving councillors for a shot at the Dáil, as well as some newer faces. Lawyers and auctioneers are well represented and, yes, there are some teachers too (Michael O’Leary take note).
John McNulty and Nikki Bradley are standing Donegal, where Joe McHugh, who resigned the party whip over the defective blocks issue, is retiring.
McNulty is from Kilcar, a Gaeltacht village in South-West Donegal, and is a small business owner. In 2014, he withdrew a Seanad bid after controversy over his appointment to the Irish Museum of Modern Art six days before he received the Fine Gael nomination.
He ran unsuccessfully for Donegal County Council on the Fine Gael ticket in 2019 and 2014.
Bradley is a Senator and has been prominent in advocating for disability rights.
Fine Gael has selected Billy O’Shea to run in Kerry, where Brendan Griffin is standing down.
O’Shea was a member of Kerry’s All-Ireland winning Gaelic football team in 1997 and was Kerry captain in 1996. He’s a publican and auctioneer and has worked as a GAA pundit for Radio Kerry.
John Paul Phelan is stepping down in Carlow-Kilkenny and, as in 2020, the party will run three candidates in this five-seater.
Two councillors on Kilkenny County Council are in the running: Michael Doyle, who also works as a healthcare assistant, and auctioneer David Fitzgerald, who has been a councillor since 2009 and previously contested the 2016 general election.
If any man deserves to be in The Dáil ( & would embellish it handsomely ), it must be Cllr. David Fitzgerald @FineGael candidate #GE24 . Enjoyed a great day’s canvassing with him in #Kilkenny today . #GoDavid ! 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/GsiSi4Ih1c
— Seán Kelly MEP (@SeanKellyMEP) November 16, 2024
Completing the ticket – and bringing in the Carlow side of the constituency – is farmer and business owner Catherine Callaghan, who also works as a special needs assistant and is a former member of the defence forces. The Carlow Nationalist reported in June that Callaghan had missed out on a seat in the Tullow local electoral area by just one vote.
She’s Fine Gael’s first female candidate in Carlow-Kilkenny, the Nationalist also reports.
Michael Creed is stepping down in Cork North-West 35 years after he was first elected to the Dáil, but his name will still be on the ballot paper.
That’s because Fine Gael has selected his cousin, a Macroom councillor also called Michael Creed, to stand.
Another long serving Cork County Councillor, John Paul O’Shea, is also going forward for election in the three-seat constituency. O’Shea also ran for the Dáil in 2020 polled well, being the final candidate eliminated.
Fine Gael is keeping it in the family in Cork East too, where Mark Stanton will contest the election following the retirement of his father, David, who has represented the area since 1997.
The younger Stanton is a former president of UCC students’ union.
Councillor Noel McCarthy, a business owner, is also standing.
Fine Gael has selected two councillors to run in this five-seat constituency where three of the TDs elected last time, including Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, are not running.
Aoibhinn Tormey is a councillor for the Howth-Malahide ward of Fingal County Councillor and works as a clinical psychologist in child and adolescent mental health.
At the other end of the constituency, Clontarf-based Naoise Ó Muirí has been a Fine Gael councillor for Dublin City Council since 2004.
Fuar, fuar, fuar in Artane last night but we got through it...🥶💪😀! pic.twitter.com/QGAGgb8oku
— @naoiseomuiri (@naoiseomuiri) November 13, 2024
William Aird will contest the election for Fine Gael in Laois following the retirement of long-time TD Charlie Flanagan.
Aird has been a Laois County Councillor since 1985 and has been a Fine Gael public representative since 1979, when he was first elected to Portlaoise Town Commission. He’s also a farmer.
This three-seat constituency was previously part of the five-seat Laois-Offaly constituency before the 2023 boundary review.
Senator John McGahon and Paula Butterly are the two candidates selected, with Fergus O’Dowd set to retire.
McGahon’s candidacy has proven to be a problem for the party in the election campaign, with leader Simon Harris repeatedly forced to defend his place on the Fine Gael ticket.
McGahon was involved in an altercation outside a pub in Dundalk in 2018, with a photograph of the other man’s injuries and a video of the incident seen widely in recent days.
Though he was acquitted in a 2022 criminal trial of assault causing harm, McGahon was ordered this summer by the High Court to pay the other man €39,000 after he sued the senator for assault and battery.
According to the Irish Times, the jury found the other man had been assaulted and awarded €60,000, including €10,000 for aggravated damages. It apportioned blame at 65% against McGahon and the other 35% against the other man.
Paula Butterly has been a Louth County Councillor since 2021. She is also a barrister.
As in 2020, Fine Gael is running two candidates in Wexford, where Paul Kehoe is standing down.
Cathal Byrne was first elected to Wexford County Council in 2019 aged 27, its youngest councillor. He was re-elected in June 2024, topping the poll in Enniscorthy.
Bridín Murphy joins him on the ballot. As well as being a councillor in the New Ross ward, Murphy is a social worker and a director of her family’s strawberry farm, Boro Valley Fruit Farm.
In the four-seat constituency of Galway East, Fine Gael has selected three candidates as Ciaran Cannon stands down.
Peter Roche has been a Galway County Councillor since 2009. He’s a full-time public representative for the Tuam area.
Clodagh Higgins is a member of Galway City Council and also works as a psychologist.
Another day on the campaign trail, canvassing with Cllrs PJ Murphy and Andrew Reddington and #TeamHiggins 💪
— Cllr. Clodagh Higgins (@CloHiggins) November 15, 2024
Grateful to everyone who took time to chat, share their ideas, and support my ambition to bring strong representation to Galway East.
Vote #1 Cllr Clodagh Higgins pic.twitter.com/fU717oUCCf
Niamh Madden works as an auctioneer and valuer and is the director of a branch of Sherry Fitzgerald estate agents.
In Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael has selected Maeve O’Connell to replace Josepha Madigan on the ballot, following the latter’s shock announcement in March that she was stepping down.
O’Connell is a lecturer in Law and Governance at Technological University Dublin and a barrister.
Her running mate will be incumbent TD Neale Richmond.
After 26 years in office, Simon Coveney announced over the summer that he would not be contesting the next election. Fine Gael is putting forward three candidates in Cork South Central, which is expanding from four to five seats.
Senator Jerry Buttimer was a TD for the Cork South-Central Constituency from 2011-2016 and hopes to retake his seat. A former Cork City Councillor, he’s the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad and a founder of Fine Gael LGBT. He worked as a secondary school teacher before entering politics full-time.
Wonderful to show ministers Pascal Donoghue and Helen McEntee around Cork today meeting people and discussing the issues that matter most to you. With your support I look forward to continuing my work in the next Dáil.
— Senator Jerry Buttimer (@jerrybuttimer) November 18, 2024
#ge2024 @Paschald @HMcEntee @FineGael pic.twitter.com/WSer3iRx8P
Úna McCarthy was coopted onto Cork County Council in the Carrigaline area in October 2023 and elected in June. She is a teacher and assistant principal at St Peter’s Community School in Passage West.
Shane O’Callaghan has been a Cork City Councillor since 2019. He is a barrister by profession.
In Dublin West, Fine Gael has selected Senator Emer Currie to replace outgoing TD and former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Currie was appointed to the Seanad in 2020 as a Taoiseach’s nominee. She is a former councillor for the Castleknock area on Fingal County Council.
Poll-topper Michael Ring is retiring in Mayo, which gains an extra seat for this election.
Fine Gael has selected three more candidates to run alongside incumbent TD and Minister of State Alan Dillon and give it a wide geographical spread across this large constituency.
Keira Keogh, from Westport, was chosen at a selection convention in September, while Mark Duffy, previously elected to Mayo County Council in Ballina as an Independent, joined the party last month to run in the general election.
The Fine Gael executive also selected Martina Jennings from South Mayo last month. Jennings is from a farming background and is CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation.
Leonora Carey is among the three candidates selected by Fine Gael in Clare. Carey is the daughter of former Fine Gael TD Donal Carey and sister of current Fine Gael TD Joe Carey, who announced he would not be contesting the election due to “a life-altering medical situation”.
She has been chair of the party’s National Executive Council and works as an occupational therapist manager.
🎤 General Election Line-Up 🎤
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) November 16, 2024
Today, we’re in Clare with @CareyLeonora to learn more about her priorities.
Vote No.1 Leonora Carey. pic.twitter.com/uolQdobcVI
Standing alongside her are Joe Cooney, a consistent poll topper in the Killaloe district of Clare County council, and Tom Nolan, a GP in Kilrush. Nolan was formerly an Independent member of the now defunct Kilkee Town Council.
Damien English is standing down in Meath West and his parliamentary assistant, Linda Nelson Murray, has been selected to stand for the seat he has held for over 20 years.
She was elected to Meath County Council in the Navan area in the recent local elections, and previously ran a kids’ activity centre, The Zone & Huckleberry’s Den, with her husband.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys was elected on the first count in the five-seat Cavan-Monaghan constituency in 2020, but last month she made the surprise announcement that she was stepping down.
TP O’Reilly, the current Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council, was Humphreys’ running mate last time and the last candidate eliminated.
He’ll have two running mates this time round. David Maxwell, a member of Monaghan County Council, was chosen by party members alongside O’Reilly at a selection convention last month.
Fine Gael’s executive council subsequently added another Cavan councillor, Carmel Brady, to the ticket also. She works as a legal secretary and is based in Cootehill.
With reporting by Valerie Flynn
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