'We'll dust ourselves off,' Sinn Féin TD says following tough election in Cork county

JUST after Sinn Féin’s candidate in Carrigaline secured his election to the final seat in that electoral area, he told The Echo that a Sinn Féin councillor was much-needed in the area.

Given that Eoghan Fahy was the only representative of the main opposition party in Dáil Éireann to be elected to Cork County Council, the largest local authority outside of Dublin, his party bosses will be saying that his election was very much needed, not alone in his area but to save his party’s blushes following an otherwise disappointing performance throughout the county.

After the 2019 election, the party had a bad day and elected just two candidates to the county council, Danielle Twomey in East Cork and Paul Hayes in West Cork — and both since resigned from the party, saying they would not be running again in this election.

This day was worse, though, according to Pat Buckley, the party’s TD in Cork East, who said he was proud of the performance of almost an entirely new slate of candidates across the county.

The only Sinn Féin candidate with previous council experience was Melissa O’Brien in Mallow.

He said: 

“Could it have been better? Of course — but local politics is very different, you have your personal vote, your party vote — to be honest with you, we’ve had this before, we’ll dust ourselves off again and come back out fighting.”

He noted that the party did attract more transfers than in previous elections, adding a reminder that after the disappointment of the 2019 local elections came the triumph of the 2020 general election.

The party’s candidate in the Macroom Electoral Area, John O’Sullivan, focused on the issues he encountered on the doorsteps and how the messaging of Sinn Féin at a national level wasn’t hitting the target, as it seemed to him.

“It’s been a good day for Fianna Fáil overall and we just have to re-evaluate our principles and stuff, and take it from there,” Mr O'Sullivan said, adding that he was happy with his own showing and saying that he would be interested in running again.

“Possibly our message has got lost to our core voters, people may have been disillusioned and have taken their vote elsewhere,” he said.

“There’s a lot of disillusionment with immigration and stuff that seems to be muddying the waters and I think that has affected us a lot — it’s unfortunate because I don’t like to think there’s a right-wing element in the country.

“I think we have to get back to our principles and address it accordingly, and take it from there.”