Offaly general election race underway
Offaly is gearing up for a short, sharp three-week general election campaign, following confirmation of the general election on Friday, November 29.
The electorate in this county will vote in a new three-seat Offaly constituency, instead of the outgoing five-seat Laois/Offaly constituency.
The only TD from Offaly elected in the last Dáil set to contest this election is Independent Deputy Carol Nolan. The Cadamstown native was elected for Sinn Féin in 2016, but left the party in 2018, disagreeing with its abortion stance. She was re-elected to the Dáil as an independent in 2020. Nolan and Barry Cowen were the two Offaly TDs, along with Brian Stanley (then Sinn Féin, now Independent), Charlie Flanagan (Fine Gael) and Sean Fleming (Fianna Fáil), all from Laois, from the 2020 general election.
This time though the Cowen name, long the standard bearer for Fianna Fáil in the county, will be absent from the ballot paper, after the election of Barry Cowen as an MEP earlier this year.
Fianna Fáil is running current Offaly County Council Cathaoirleach Tony McCormack, and new county councillor Claire Murray.
Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick, the highest vote-getter in the local elections earlier this year, has left Fianna Fáil, after Murray was added to the party ticket by headquarters, and will contest as an independent.
Fine Gael has a single candidate in the shape of Kinnitty-based Cllr John Clendennen, who is the current president of the Vintners Federation of Ireland. He was first elected to Offaly County Council in 2014.
Sinn Féin will run Cllr Aoife Masterson, A Tullamore native who was first elected to the county council in June, she is a former lecturer who has worked as a political advisor for Sinn Féin's Seanad team.
Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett will be on the ballot paper for the Green Party. She contested the last general election unsuccessfully, before being elected to the Seanad and then appointed as a Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. She sat at Cabinet as a super junior minister.
Independent Ireland will be represented by Cllr Fergus McDonnell from Edenderry, who was elected on the first count in the 2024 county council elections.
McDonnell was a former member of Edenderry Town Council for almost 30 years, and also sat on Offaly County Council from 2004-2009.
Maureen Ward will be on the ballot paper for Aontu. Ward, from Tullamore, is as human rights activist, who is Interim Co-ordinator of Minceirs Whiden, which in Cant, the Traveller language, means Travellers Talking, a national organisation based in the midlands..
Keishia Taylor is running for People before Profit – Soldiarity
In the coming days, before the closing date for nominations, other candidates may emerge.