Cllr Sarah O'Reilly (Chairperson Bailieborough Cootehill LEA) speaking at the Parties Dail Selection Convention in Cootehill where she was selected to contest the next general election in Cavan/Monaghan.

O'Reilly promises to be a voice of "common sense" for Aontú

Sean McMahon

Published: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 3:31 PM

Last updated: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 4:34 PM

With some political commentators still predicting an October General Election, another candidate entered the field in Cavan and Monaghan on last night (Monday) as Aontú formally selected Cllr Sarah O’Reilly to run for the party.

Having been confirmed, unopposed, as the candidate at a selection convention in the Errigal House Hotel in Cootehill, party leader Peadar Toibín heaped praise on the Bailieborough representative.
“We could have no better candidate than Sarah O’Reilly,” enthused Deputy Tobin.
“Sarah O’Reilly has a level of courage that does not really exist in candidates in other political parties,” he added, describing her as an “extraordinary woman”, “immersed in her community” and with a “phenomenal” work ethic that delivers for the people she represents.
Cllr O’Reilly topped the poll in Bailieborough-Cootehill with 1,704 votes and 15% of the first preferences to become Aontú’s first elected councillor in the country.

In her acceptance speech, Cllr O’Reilly said she was “deeply honoured” to have been selected to run for Aontú and promised to be a voice of “common sense” in central Government.
“Here I am – just an ordinary woman – nothing special and nothing grand, but willing to run for election and to stand for the ordinary man,” said a passionate Cllr O’Reilly.
She predicted that the reunited constituency of Cavan-Monaghan with five seats now up for grabs will be most of the “most hotly contested” areas in the country.
Among the issues on her agenda, she cited Brexit, rural broadband, the North South Interconnector, roads infrastructure including the east west link, garda resources, farming supports and additional bus links, including one between Bailieboro and Ballyjamesduff, with a stop in Virginia.
The convention was chaired by Grainne McPhillips who contested the recent local elections in the Ballyjamesduff Municipal District. Cllr O’Reilly was proposed by James Duffy from the Castleblayney Cumann and seconded by Seamus Boylan from the Ballyjamesduff Cumann.

* For full story, see tomorrow's Anglo-Celt print edition.