Two vacant seats up for grabs in Clare electoral race

The four-seat Clare constituency will be a very interesting and competitive one to watch for Election 2024.

For starters, there are two vacant Dáil seats to be filled, which means there will certainly be new faces representing Clare for the 34th Dáil.

Joe Carey, from Clarecastle outside Ennis, who has been a TD for the constituency for the past four general elections has resigned on health grounds, and Michael McNamara, who topped the poll winning a seat as an Independent in 2020 and for Labour in the 2011 election, only to lose it in 2016, has now been elected as a member of the European Parliament.

So, a very interesting battle emerging in the midwest coastal constituency which stretches from Blackhead and Ballyvaughan in the north, all the way down to the Loop Head peninsula, with an electorate of over 91,000.

It had always been a Fianna Fáil stronghold with the party founder Éamon de Valera representing the constituency for 38 years, after first being elected in 1921 - a seat he held until 1959.

His granddaughter and former minister Síle de Valera also represented the constituency for 20 years since 1987. And Fianna Fáil have always held at least two seats in the constituency until 2011 when Timmy Dooley held their only seat.

Fianna Fáil is putting forward three contender: Cathal Crowe, an outgoing TD, Timmy Dooley, a Fianna Fáil Senator and former TD, and Councillor Rita McInerney, a native of Doonbeg right out on the Atlantic coast.

Can Fianna Fáil take back the two seats they traditionally held?

Timmy Dooley is certainly making a determined effort to win back the seat he held for 13 years, only to lose it amid the Sinn Féin tsunami of strong support which claimed a lot of electoral scalps in the last election of 2020.

Mr Dooley was first elected in 2007, who along with former Fianna Fáil TD Tony Killeen held the two party seats in Clare for many years.

Mr Dooley strengthened his position in two elections that followed and topped the poll in 2016, with over 10,000 first preference votes and remained the only Fianna Fáil candidate elected over both the 2011 and 2016 elections.

Fianna Fáil were going again for two seats in 2020, but everyone was taken by complete surprise when the relatively unknown Violet Anne Wynn of Sinn Féin, a Clare councillor at the time, topped the poll and took the first seat for the party in the Clare constituency since Éamon de Valera in 1921.

Fianna Fáil's Cathal Crowe will also be making a determined effort to hold the seat he first won in 2020, but can the party return two seats to regain the strong position they have held in the constituency and return Mr Dooley again as well?

Councillor Rita McInerney is running for the party for the first outing in a general election, but she is equally determined. A business owner in her native Doonbeg and former CEO of Ennis Chamber, she says she hopes to be a strong voice representing the whole county, but in particular the north and west of the county, which she feels has been poorly represented in the past.

Fine Gael is also running three candidates: Leonora Carey, Cllr Joe Cooney and Dr Tom Nolan.

Joe Carey of Fine Gael may have resigned his seat, but the Carey name will still be on the ballot paper as his sister Leonora Carey is running this time.

While she has never held public office, she is a well-known member of the Fine Gael family nationally, and is a former chair of the party's national executive council. Her father Donal also served as both a councillor and TD for over 20 years in Clare.

She acknowledges the name recognition and says she wants to continue the work done by her brother and honour the long tradition of service by her family over decades.

East Clare Councillor Joe Cooney is also standing and is recognised as a hard working councillor for many years. His name in the electoral ring has certainly put the cat among the pigeons as he is from east Clare and he could eat into the firm home ground of Mr Doley.

Dr Tom Nolan from Kilkee in west Clare is also on the Fine Gael ticket for this General Election.

Sinn Féin Councillor Donna McGettigan, who is based in Shannon, is running for Sinn Féin this time around as outgoing TD Violet Anne Wynn left the party and is now running as an independent.

Cllr McGettigan believes she can hold the Sinn Féin seat and says Sinn Féin policies are resonating with people on the doors.

"People are just fed up having to fight constantly for services - for services for people of all ages living with a disability, for school services and for mental health services for young people with CAMHS. And then they see the public wastage of money in Dublin and they just are fed up," she says.

Deputy leader of the Greens Róisín Garvey is fighting to take the first ever Dáil seat for the party in Clare.

While they were the small party in government she believes the Greens have succeeded in getting several of their policies onto the statue books. She says they can be credited with improving rural transport and making a difference to peoples lives who wish to pursue more sustainable ways to manage their homes.

She says she would be a strong voice for rural Ireland in the Dáil. She also has name recognition in Clare as her father Cllr Flan Garvey was also a Fianna Fáil councillor for many years in the county.

Outgoing TD Violet Anne Wynn believes her independence will stand to her holding her seat.

"I’ve been getting a good reception on the doorsteps, and I believe my standing as an independent is an advantage because one of the things I have heard consistently on the doorsteps is that people are absolutely sick of party politics," she says.

There are 20 people on the ballot paper in Clare.

Fianna Fáil: Cathal Crowe, Timmy Dooley, Rita McInerney

Fine Gael: Joe Cooney, Leonora Carey, Dr. Tom Nolan.

Sinn Féin: Donna McGettigan.

Green Party: Róisín Garvey.

Social Democrats: Hilary Tonge

Aontú: June Dillon.

People Before Profit-Solidarity: Caitríona Ni Chatháin.

Rabharta: Barry O’Donovan.

Independent/non party: Matthew Moroney, Paddy Murphy, Kevin Hassett, Amanda Major and Violet Anne Wynn.

Irish Freedom Party: Michael Leahy.

The Irish People: Michael Loughrey.

Independent Ireland: Eddie Punch.