Sinn Féin selects two female candidates in Tullamore electoral area
Sinn Féin is aiming to win back the seat lost to the party following the shock resignation of poll-topper Brendan Killeavy in 2018 by selecting two Tullamore-based female candidates to contest the local elections next year.
First-time election candidates Teresa Bracken and Aoife Masterson will be targeting a seat in the seven-seat Tullamore Electoral Area and will be hoping to take advantage of the strong support for Sinn Féin nationally, which currently stands at 34%.
Teresa Bracken, who is a native of Arden View, has a background in social care and has worked with a number of marginalised communities, including people experiencing homelessness and also with victims of domestic violence.
Aoife Masterson, whose father is the well-known former Coláiste Choilm teacher, Rory Masterson, is based in Leinster House as a Sinn Féin party worker. She has previously worked in the NGO sector and also with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Free Legal Advice Centre.
Buoyed up by their consistent high showing in opinion polls, the party in Offaly will be hoping to reverse the catastrophic wipe-out they experienced in the 2019 local elections when they lost all three of their council seats.
The party suffered a huge blow when both Brendan Killeavy and Martin O’Reilly, poll-toppers in Tullamore and Edenderry respectively, announced their resignation from local politics in 2018, while sitting Sinn Fein TD, Carol Nolan, also resigned from the party in the same year when she backed the pro-life side in the abortion referendum.
The party has hinted that it may run two more candidates in Offaly in the local elections, which are due to take place in June of next year. Clare Murray has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the Edenderry Electoral Area, while Sean Maher, who failed to take a seat for the party in 2019, is expected to seek a nomination in Birr.
Conventions to ratify Sinn Fein candidates for both the Birr and Edenderry Electoral Areas have yet to take place, but are expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks.