First time ‘Sherlock’ not on ballot in 40 years

IT will be the first time in 40 years that the name Sherlock hasn’t appeared on a local election ballot paper in Mallow.

The late Joe Sherlock was a town councillor, county councillor and TD and then his son took over the mantle.

In 2004, Sean Sherlock topped the poll for Labour with 3,184 first preference votes (25.32% of the poll) and was elected on the first count ahead of FF’s Mallow-based businessman Dan Joe Fitzgerald who got 2,571.

The FG duo of former teacher Noel O’Connor and auctioneer Tom Sheahan took the remaining two seats.

Jerry Mullally, an active trade unionist, was co-opted onto the county council when Sean Sherlock was elected to the Dáil in 2007.

It’s therefore his first time to go before the electorate.

Labour are also running Ronan Sheehan, a former inter-county footballer who hails from Buttevant. The party will be trying to win two seats, but even with the Sherlock factor they will find it difficult.

Fianna Fáil’s Dan Joe Fitzgerald is a hard worker and very popular. It would be a major shock, even with FF on the back foot, if he lost his seat.

His running mate is freelance journalist Trish O’Dea. The mother-of-three from Liscarroll is facing an uphill battle. Being from outside Mallow, she will find it tough to get the votes she needs in the town. She has been critical of her own party, which might gain her some sympathy from the electorate but it probably won’t be enough.

Fine Gael’s Noel O’Connor, meanwhile, is expected to win a seat. Both he and Fitzgerald are the only certainties in what is now a five-seater constituency.

Fine Gael sitting councillor Tom Sheehan could find himself under pressure from party colleagues Tom Barry, an agribusiness man from Killavullen and Anthony Ahern, a haulier from Dromahane. Ahern ran in 2004 and got 1,067 first preference votes, before being eliminated on the fifth count.

Sinn Féin, however, have high hopes for Willie O’Regan. The widower, who is a father-of-four, will need transfers to make the winning line. With two Labour candidates he could expect to pick up some but will that be enough?

A rank outsider is John Paul O’Shea, a 25-year-old communications executive with the HSE. Having played a pivotal role recently in pushing for automation of all rural post offices, his main reason to run for local politics, he said, was to retain and enhance services in rural areas where many communities are being brushed aside and forgotten.