Who was elected in your area?: Cork City South West

Wed, 12 Jun, 2024 - 10:09

Amy Power

WITH 17 candidates and seven seats, the count in the city’s South West ward was always going to be a lengthy one.

The final tallies at Nemo Rangers on Saturday indicated that the ward would be another success story for Fianna Fáil, with Colm Kelleher and Fergal Dennehy leading.

The first to be elected in the ward was Togher-based councillor Mr Dennehy. He was deemed elected on the eighth count with 2,051 votes including transfers.

“I consider myself a community activist, and I’ve been working in my community for 30 years, and it’s nice when the community shows up for you and they did this weekend,” Mr Dennehy said moments after he was elected.

“The work is only beginning now, obviously.

“During this election campaign we came across a lot of issues that need to be dealt with and that are still there, and the election doesn’t fix those issues.

“We have a lot of challenges, and I’m looking forward to facing those challenges and resolving issues for people, but absolutely delighted to have a mandate to now go and do that and carry on the work that I am doing in my community.”

Mr Dennehy said the result was worth the long wait.

“We have seven seats in our ward; it was always going to be the slow one… but honestly I would take the seat at any time of the morning, noon, or night,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me!”

He said his priorities for the next council term would include progressing the Lehenaghmore road improvement scheme.

Next elected in the ward were Garret Kelleher (Fine Gael) and Colm Kelleher (Fianna Fáil), both of whom were elected on the 10th count.

Garret Kelleher was elected with 2,373 votes, including transfers, while Colm Kelleher was deemed elected with 2,174 votes, including transfers.

“Over the moon,” ,” Colm Kelleher said. “Absolutely delighted — myself and my ward colleague Garret Kelleher elected on the same count.

“It was a long, drawn-out count, but delighted that it’s over now.

“It’s very humbling that the people of the South West ward, and particularly my home town of Ballincollig, have put their faith behind me, and I want to thank every single person that came out and voted for me from the bottom of my heart and I hope I do you proud.”

The South West ward, the ward with the highest number of seats, also had the largest amount of candidates.

The other candidates successful in the area were Joe Lynch, Sinn Féin, Laura Harmon, the Labour Party, Terry Coleman, Fianna Fáil and Albert Deasy, Independent.

Two sitting councillors lost out - the Green Party's Colette Finn and Sinn Féin's Orla O'Leary.

Fianna Fáil made up the highest number with four candidates (Colm Kelleher, Fergal Dennehy, Terry Coleman, and Olga Shevchenko), followed by Fine Gael (Garret Kelleher, Gary O’Brien, and Andrea Christopher-Rea), and Sinn Féin (Orla O’Leary, Trevor McCarthy, and Joe Lynch) and Independents Albert Deasy, Aran MacDonnchadha, and Thomas Kiely.

There was also one Green Party candidate (Colette Finn), one Social Democrats candidate (Ciarán McCarthy), one Labour Party candidate (Laura Harmon), and one Aontú candidate (Joanne Murphy) running.

Cork City South West