INDEPENDENTS:INDEPENDENTS AND fringe parties have increased the number of seats they hold on county and city councils across the State. After the 2004 local elections they held 96 seats, which increased to at least 118 last night, with counting still continuing in a number of areas.
A number of these gains have come about as a result of former PD candidates running successfully as Independents this time out, while some former Fianna Fáil party members also won seats as Independents. These included Jimmy Kenny in Roscommon, who left the party after failing to be selected as a candidate to represent it during its controversial interview process.
Former Fianna Fáil councillor Michael “Stroke” Fahy, who stood down from Fianna Fáil in late 2004 after it emerged he was at the centre of a Garda investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds, topped the poll in the Loughrea electoral area for seats on Galway County Council.
However, three candidates who resigned from Fianna Fáil in Offaly earlier in the year and ran as Independents for Offaly County Council did poorly.
There were large gains for the People Before Profit party, which won five seats on local authorities in Dublin, and for the Socialist party, which now has three seats on Fingal County Council and one seat on Cork City Council.
In Tipperary, four independent councillors and three town councillors running with the support of the Michael Lowry machine were elected.
There are now eight independents on Clare County Council. Consumer advocate Michael Kilcoyne topped the polls in Castlebar and took seats on both the county council and the town council. One of the talking points of Kilcoyne’s campaign was the fact that he didn’t erect any posters whatsoever, preferring instead to “let performance be my publicity”.
Independents and fringe parties in Dublin also scored some impressive victories. Usually they are the candidates who scrape the last seat in any ward, taking transfers from the larger parties. This time they have polled strongly on first preferences throughout the four Dublin local authorities, with some topping the polls.
Their achievements were most remarkable in the city, where, if the two People Before Profit candidates are included, they doubled their numbers from four to eight.
The biggest Independent name to take a seat was former industrial school inmate and writer Mannix Flynn, who was elected in the South East Inner City. However, the award for most outstanding performance has to go to newcomer Damian O’Farrell. This protege of Finian McGrath was unknown until very recently, but he topped the poll with 4,194 first preferences, more votes not only than the other candidates in his ward but than any other candidate for the city council.
Mr O’Farrell has spoken publicly about his abuse as a child by a Christian Brother, and says the timing of the Ryan report on institutional child abuse probably helped his campaign, but he said there was already a mood for change in the constituency.
“Rather than my vote being a protest vote or a sympathy vote, I think it was given out of confidence in me to challenge Dublin City Council and bring a new contemporary politic to the council.”
In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, long-time environment and social campaigner Richard Boyd Barrett, who narrowly missed out on a Dáil seat in 2007, topped the poll in the Dún Laoghaire area under the People Before Profit banner. The People Before Profit group also gained a seat in Ballybrack with Hugh Lewis, while former PD Victor Boyhan, who lost his seat in 2004, is now back as an Independent in Blackrock.
The two sitting socialists, Clare Daly and Ruth Coppinger, have now been joined by Socialist party leader Joe Higgins on Fingal County Council, giving it the largest socialist representation in the State.