The leader of the Seanad, Mary O'Rourke, has been selected to stand for Fianna Fáil in the Longford-Westmeath constituency in next year's general election, after winning a tightly fought selection convention race by nine votes in Mullingar yesterday evening.
Mrs O'Rourke beat Athlone councillor Kevin "Boxer" Moran by 48 votes to 39 in a contest to choose a candidate from the south Westmeath end of the constituency.
Voting at the convention was confined to the 87 delegates from the Athlone and Kilbeggan areas of south Westmeath. Sitting TDs Peter Kelly and Donie Cassidy were unopposed for nominations from the Longford and north Westmeath parts of the constituency, which meant that the majority of more than 600 party members who attended the convention were excluded from voting.
The result gives Mrs O'Rourke the opportunity to regain the Dáil seat she lost in 2002.
Speaking after the result was announced by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, who chaired the convention, Mrs O'Rourke paid tribute to her opponent and thanked her campaign team.
In a comment praising the team, she said: "They listened to my moaning and my groaning . . . they were there for me and they worked like blacks."
The off-the-cuff reference to "blacks" led to a wave of murmurs, apparently of disapproval, among the delegates.
Last night Peter O'Mahony, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said the comment was "clearly ill-advised". He added, however, that he acknowledged that Mrs O'Rourke was one of the relatively small number of national politicians who had been brave and courageous on refugee issues.
On reports of tensions between her and Mr Moran during their intensive five-week race, Mrs O'Rourke said: "We had a harmonious campaign, can you believe it? That's my story and I'm sticking to it."
In his speech accepting his nomination, sitting TD Donie Cassidy also referred to the rivalry between himself and Mrs O'Rourke, which is expected to intensify in the run-up to the election. He said he looked forward to "working with her harmoniously in the next year and a half in the interests of Fianna Fáil".
He added: "There's never any difficulty between Mary O'Rourke and I when there is no election."