Cork City South Central: Constituency gains a seat as it expands

In the second of a five part series on the newly redrawn city boundaries, Kevin O’Neill profiles the constituency of Cork City South Central.

Cork City South Central will be gaining a seat in this election as it expands south, east and west. Now a six-seater, it still has its traditional areas from the city centre to the Lough and Ballyphehane but will also be incorporating extensions in all directions.

Just one of the existing councillors in the constituency has confirmed that they won’t be running again. Former Lord Mayor Tom O’Driscoll is one of the longest serving members of the council having first been elected in 1991. Though he lost his seat in 2009, he regained it in 2014.

In November 2018, he confirmed he would not be putting his name forward for election again and while he stressed it was not the only factor, he conceded the changes to the city boundary and the revamped local

electoral area were indeed an element of why he was stepping back.

As it stands, fewer than a dozen names have been put forward for election in the constituency and it looks likely to throw up a few surprises.

In 1999, 2004 and 2014, an Independent candidate came out on top of the pile, and in 2009 it was the Labour Party that secured the highest volume of first preference votes.

It would not be entirely surprising to see something similar happen this time out.

Independent councillor Mick Finn chatting with William Sreenan, while canvassing in Ballyphehane, Cork. Picture: David Keane.

Cllr Mick Finn, the current Lord Mayor of Cork, has confirmed his intention to run again. A poll-topper in 2014, Mr Finn was also a popular choice in 2009. He will be hoping to reap the rewards of holding the office of Lord Mayor during the election cycle, though it comes with a warning.

In 2014, then-Lord Mayor Catherine Clancy lost her seat. Ms Clancy was running for Labour and lost out as part of the party’s wipeout, which saw it lose all seven of its seats on the council.

Mr Finn conceded that it will be a challenge to balance the workload of being Lord Mayor with canvassing, and he won’t have the securing of a major party behind him to help ease the burden, but he has been a reliable and popular choice on the southside of the city for the last decade.

Fellow Independent councillor Paudie Dineen will also run again. A businessman, Mr Dineen was finally elected in 2014 having failed to make the cut in 2004 and 2009.

As the local electoral area has expanded from five to six seats, the main parties will be hopeful of hoovering up more votes.

Fianna Fáil councillor Seán Martin will run again. He was co-opted into his brother Micheál’s seat in 1997 and has been re-elected every time since.

Joining Mr Martin on the Fianna Fáil ticket is former Independent David Boyle. He served as a county councillor in the Carrigaline district from 2009 to 2014, but lost his seat at the last election.

That district covered the county areas of the city’s southern environs, which are coming under Cork City Council with the boundary extension.

Mr Boyle lives with his wife and two children in Grange, which will be tacked on to the Cork City South Central ward when the city boundary change comes into effect.

Fine Gael, meanwhile, currently has no councillors in Cork City South Central. It is the glaring gap for the party on the southside of the city, where four of their five councillors are from.

In 2014, they secured two seats in each of Cork City South West and Cork City South East.

Barrister Shane O’Callaghan has been selected as the party’s candidate in the area. Mr O’Callaghan ran for a seat on Cork County Council in 2014 but missed out on the 13th count. The party will be hopeful that Mr O’Callaghan can secure a seat to strengthen its hand on the southside of the city.

It is losing two sitting councillors in John Buttimer and Laura McGonigle from the south-west and south-east electoral areas, respectively, and will face stiff competition in what looks set to be a very congested area in each of the new local electoral areas on the south side of the River Lee.

Sinn Féin, meanwhile, will have high hopes for its ticket. Cllr Fiona Kerins, a sitting city councillor, missed out on topping the poll in 2014 by just three votes, and she has performed strongly in each of her previous runs.

She will be joined on the ticket by Cllr Eoghan Jeffers, currently a member of Cork County Council. Mr Jeffers was co-opted after Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire was elected to the Dáil Éireann in 2016 and has represented the Togher and Lehenaghmore areas since.

He will face a challenge in where the lines were drawn for the ward — Togher and Lehenagh straddle both south-west and south-central — but name and party recognition alone might be enough to give him a strong starting point.

Outside of these, there are three names confirmed on the ticket to date, though there is likely to be more added.

One of these, Dan Boyle of the Green Party, is more familiar than the others. Mr Boyle, a TD from 2002 to 2007 and senator from 2007 to 2011, is the most experienced member of the Green ticket throughout the city.

The last time that the Green Party won a seat in this constituency was in 1999 when Mr Boyle himself was elected. He will be hoping for a repeat this time around.

He may stand the best chance of any of the party’s candidates, too. While Oliver Moran in the north-east and Lorna Bogue in the south-east of the city have done considerable groundwork in the last few years, they face steep competition in their respective wards from established candidates.

Labour will be hoping to win their first seat in south-central since 2009 when Lorraine Kingston topped the poll. Newcomer Luke Field is the party’s candidate in the area. Mr Field was deputy chair of the Cork Together for Yes campaign and also served as a canvassing and training officer.

Patricia O’Dwyer will stand for the Social Democrats in south-central. The party has no representation on Cork City Council and its only elected member of Cork County Council — Joe Harris — was elected as an Independent and joined the party afterwards.

Ms O’Dwyer is a self-employed public health nursing consultant and this will be her first election campaign. Of all the city constituencies, south-central is one of the most open. There are six seats to claim and just five councillors in the running.

Fine Gael will be hopeful of increasing their presence on the southside but it is also likely to have been identified early on by independents and smaller parties as a potential window of opportunity given how south-central has previously swayed.