SF look to fill Carthy's European seat
Sinn Fein’s Matt Carthy is a man in demand following his poll topping performance in Cavan-Monaghan, but so too is the seat he is set to leave vacant in Europe as a departing MEP. However, it’s not all straight forward for either him or the party as many of the candidates lined up to replace also look set to claim a seat in their respective constituencies in the next Dail.
Matt Carthy’s number one chosen replacement, Darren O'Rourke, is expected to top the poll for Sinn Féin in the Meath constituency.
His number two option, Pauline Tully, is meanwhile on course to claim the third seat available in Cavan-Monaghan.
Working even further down the list his third option, Mairead Farrell, also seems certain to win a seat in Galway West. Incredibly she lost her seat a little over six months ago when Sinn Fein’s representation was wiped out on Galway County Council.
It means going all the way down the list to number four- Caoimhe Ní Shluain in Co Meath, who was not a candidate running in this election.
In 2012 she was appointed Mayor of Navan Town, making her the youngest town mayor elected in Ireland and only the second female mayor of Navan Town Council.
She has never stood in County Council election. “We’ll see what Caoimhe has to say about it,” Matt Carthy told The Anglo-Celt.
Beyond Caoimhe Ní Shluain is Claire Kerrane in the Roscommon-Galway, who looks set to make history as the first Sinn Fein TD elected in the constituency since the election of George Noble Plunkett in the famous North Roscommon bye-election "of the snows" of 1917.
“The people have spoken and the people says they want Sinn Fein representatives in Dail Eireann.”
Whether the former youngest mayor of Co Monaghan will be well positioned to sit within Sinn Fein’s front bench of representatives, Matt Carthy said that would be a decision left up to party leader Mary Lou McDonald.
“I think both myself and Pauline Tully will be big players in the next Dail. I think that’s one of the reasons we both got elected, that people see us in our own right as serious representative people who will go to the Dail. We will advocate in the first instance for the people who elected us and we will champion the things that are needed for Cavan-Monaghan. But I think at a national level we also have a role to play from our own life experiences and our own political experiences also.”