Former Fianna Fáil TD Thomas McEllistrim has begun canvassing for the next general election in Kerry and was continuing his door-to-door calls yesterday in the Killarney area.
Mr McEllistrim (44), “young Tommy Mac”, as he styles himself in leaflets he is handing to voters seeking a Dáil vote, is a third-generation politician. Both his father and grandfather were TDs for north Kerry.
No candidate or candidates have been selected to run for Fianna Fáil in the new Kerry constituency, a one-county five-seater, and the hard canvass by McEllistrim is leading to astonishment in some quarters. “I am just introducing myself,” McEllistrim said.
However, one senior political source said, after hearing the former TD was again out door-to-door in Killarney accompanied by supporters: “We are just gobsmacked.”
Former ceann comhairle and former Kerry South TD John O’Donoghue has declared his interest in running and has been selected as public relations officer for the party’s new Kerry comhairle ceantair organisation. The now independent TD Tom Fleming has also been approached to rejoin the party.
Other names being mooted for what is likely to be a two-man ticket for Fianna Fáil are the Listowel councillor John Brassil and the Killarney area councillor John Joe Culloty , while the Tralee councillor Norma Foley cannot be ruled out.
Mr McEllistrim lost his Dáil seat in the 2007 Kerry North-West Limerick constituency.