Sinn Féin looking to add two candidates to Cavan ticket

Sinn Féin is still looking to add two more faces to its County Cavan election ticket, employing what would be an ambitious nine candidate strategy come June 7.

At present they have seven standing under the party banner - one current councillor, two returning former councillors, and four new faces entirely.

Together, the group launched their election campaign at the Hotel Kilmore back in February, when joined by the party leadership including Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald and EU candidates for Midlands North-West, Michelle Gildernew MP and Chris MacManus MEP.

The word then, and still on nearly everyone’s lips is “change”.

Stiofán Conaty (30) is the Irish Language Development Officer for Conradh na Gaeilge in Monaghan Town. He’s set to stand in the Bailieborough-Cootehill area.

He helped set up the Pat Rehill Cumman in Ballyhaise post Covid, to “give a voice” to the evident Republican support in the area, and with one eye on upcoming elections.

He points to the legacy left by former County Councillor and election agent to hunger striker Kieran Doherty, Charlie Boylan.

“The groundwork is there, and the winds of change are shifting. We want to be ready for that,” says Stiofán, who always held an “interest” in politics.

Stiofán says it’s “not just the traditional Republican voter thinking of voting Sinn Féin come June.

“It’s young people, it’s my parents’ generation who might never have considered voting Sinn Féin but are now starting to look for an alternative.”

Marina McEntee from Kingscourt shares the Bailieborough-Cootehill ticket with Stiofán, though at opposite ends of the area.

A rendering plant operative, she says it’s not a job for the faint-hearted, or those of a sensitive disposition. Then again, neither is politics.

The 29-year-old joined Sinn Féin in 2020.

“Their outlook always aligned with mine. I’m part of the generation that wants to see change,” she explains.

Like Stiofán, Marina has found people increasingly willing to listen to the message of other parties and candidates.

The issues she brings to the fore in her own area are rural transport and roads safety and the need for a full time garda station in Kingscourt, as well as access to services such as medical.

“These are huge issues right now. They’re not going away,” Marina said.

She also sees many of her own friends, and even relatives, having to leave Ireland in search of opportunity, having been priced out of creating a life for themselves here.

The same can be said of mum of three Angela Gaffney, who will run in the Ballyjamesduff area.

A native of Cabra in Dublin, she has called Mullagh home for almost the past 25 years. She first became interested in politics, and subsequently Sinn Féin, during the Anti H-Block campaigns of the early 1980s.

“I was born into a Fianna Fáil family, but growing up in the ‘80s there was a lot of injustice going on with the hunger strikes, and I started following that.”

It’s through her children, now all grown up, she moved to take a more active role locally.

In particular, she feels strongly about the difficulties many young people face in accessing housing and other services.

“It was hard in the ‘80s, but I don’t know, it seems harder for young people these days to try and get ahead,” says Angela. “I’m lucky I’ve my family reared, but I’m looking at them and their friends trying to buy houses, stuck in a rent trap, maybe having to emigrate. It shouldn’t be that way.”

Making a difference

Michael ‘Bricker’ Wall, a candidate in the Cavan-Belturbet area alongside former councillor Damien Brady, is confident Sinn Féin can, and will, make a difference.

He served with the defence forces for five years, and is a UN Veteran having gone on tour of duty to Lebanon. He now works with the Medi-Call ambulance service, and got involved with Sinn Féin having becoming disenchanted with Fianna Fáil and its direction.

“I believe in change. Will I make a change? I hope so, that’s why I’m running for election. Change is needed,” says Michael bluntly. “When Fianna Fáil got into bed with Fine Gael that was the end for me. It was always one versus the other growing up for me.

“I got talking to Pauline (Tully) and I got interested in their message for change and making a difference for everyone, not just a few. That’s important to me.”

Like running mate Damien Brady, Noel Connell was one of three Cavan Sinn Féin councillors to lose their seats last election.

He too has seen the shift in public opinion, and believes it’s down to the work the party does at grassroots level, on behalf of the communities they serve, and “regardless of politics”.

It was a “devastating” blow for Noel, who loved the role and “took real pride” in making representations on behalf of his community in the Ballyjamesduff area.

Within a week however he had regrouped, and continued to represent his community in all but title.

He says there is a “lot of work going on behind the scenes” to get candidates ready.

The party was questioned why it didn’t run more candidates in the last General Election given the resulting success of Matt Carthy and Pauline Tully. The reticence was in part due to the outcome at local level just months prior.

“We feel the momentum is with us now,” says Noel of the nine candidate strategy still being unfolded.

Bailieborough based Councillor Paddy McDonald agrees.

He was the only Sinn Féin representative to escape the near wipe-out five years ago. And only just. He was elected in the eighth count and only after the elimination of his party colleague Bridget Boyle.

He too believes the “momentum” is with Sinn Féin.

“People want change, and hopefully come election day they vote for that.”

In the past five years Cllr McDonald has witnessed a widening of the social gap, and “a new poor” emerge, where the once middle classes have been pinched to an ever greater extent by inflation and the cost of living.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been running this country since the foundation of this state and where has it got us? We have serious problems in our communities. Roads are a big issue in this county, and housing.”

Séan Murphy is the Director of Elections for Sinn Féin, and Chair of the party’s Comhairle Ceantar. The Donegal man says Sinn Féin’s strategy is based on “quality not quantity” and the party won’t be rushed to picking just anyone.

The party has seven of its planned nine candidates selected, with selection conventions planned for the Cavan-Belturbet and Ballyjamesduff MD areas.

“We’re currently looking for two further candidates. At the moment we have some expressions of interest, and we’re working with the local Cummans to select the right candidate for those areas. It’s very important that we do that, and have a connection with the people in those areas, rather than selecting people for the sake of numbers.”