Stunning Tullamore comeback for Sinn Féin

The big story of the local elections for the Tullamore area is the stunning comeback of Sinn Fein, with party newcomer, Aoife Masterson, comfortably taking the seat previously held by Clara’s Sandy Feehan Smollen.

Having gained seats in all three Offaly electoral areas in 2014, the party lost all three seats again in 2019 when they suffered a calamitous collapse in their vote share. Such was the scale of the collapse that their candidate in Tullamore, Anne Marie Ennis, polled just 287 first preference votes.

Ennis was selected following the shock decision of the party’s sitting councillor Brendan Killeavy not to contest the 2019 election, having been their star performer in 2014 when he claimed almost 23% of the first preference votes in Tullamore. Killeavy was instrumental in the success of Aoife Masterson’s bid to gain a foothold for the party locally by assisting and managing her campaign and endorsing her candidature on social media.

This time round, Sinn Fein garnered 14% of the vote in Tullamore, with Aoife Masterson securing 1,216 first preference votes and being elected on the 4th count having exceeded the quota of 1,459 by 34 votes.

Sandy Feehan Smollen will be disappointed with her performance, having replaced her husband Ken, the well-known food poverty campaigner, on the council in September of last year when he was forced to step away from local politics due to ill-health.

Ken Smollen stood in 2019 on the Irish Democratic Party ticket and was elected on the final count having secured 1,054 first preference votes. He later left that party and sat as an independent the council. However, the 782 first preferences which went the way of Sandy Feehan Smollen left her with way too much ground to make up in order to have any real prospect of retaining her seat.

On the other hand, the second outgoing Independent councillor for the Tullamore area, Sean O’Brien, will be very pleased with his vote. Having been elected on the final count in 2019 without reaching the quota he actually recorded an increase in his vote share this time round of almost 50% by securing a whopping 1,337 first preference votes. Picking up transfers right along the way, he was elected on the 4th count with 1,538 votes, alongside outgoing FF Cllr, Tony McCormack and Aoife Masterson.

Speaking after his election, O’Brien attributed the increase in his vote share to "hard work" and said he had run “a good campaign” but admitted that it had been “a tough campaign too.”

It was an exceptionally good day at the office for Fianna Fáil in Tullamore once again in these local elections as they managed to hold onto their four seats, despite the retirement of veteran Cllr, Danny Owens. His departure paved the way for newcomer, Ollie Bryant, who polled an impressive 1,182 first preference votes on his first outing.

Amazingly, Fianna Fail managed to secure 45% of the votes in the Tullamore area, and their vote management strategy was impeccable as all four of their candidates were within 100 first preference votes of each other. Frank Moran, who is a hugely popular figure in his home base of Clara, was the Fianna Fáil poll topper with 1,429 first preference votes and narrowly missed out on being elected on the first count by a mere 30 votes.

He had to wait until the third count before being elected when he was bang on quota with 1,459 votes.

It was very much a case of a missed opportunity for Fine Gael by running only one candidate in the Tullamore area, Neil Feighery, who topped the poll with a massive 1,962 first preference votes. In 2019 the party ran three candidates, one of whom, Deirdre Fox, amassed 732 first preference votes, with the second, Bernard Westman, securing 532 first preferences. Given Feighery's popularity at the poll, the party may well be wondering if they allowed an opportunity for a second seat to slip away.

The Tullamore Local Electoral Area is now made up of four Fianna Fáil councillors, Frank Moran, Tony McCormack, Declan Harvey and Ollie Bryant; one Fine Gael councillor, Neil Feighery; one Sinn Féin councillor, Aoife Masterson and one Independent Sean O’Brien.