O’Keeffes hoping for three in a row

NOT every family can boast running three candidates at the forthcoming elections.

Ned O’Keeffe – who is known the length and breadth of the country – is contesting European elections in Ireland South.

His son, Kevin, is expected to easily retain his seat on Cork County Council.

However, for one member of the O’Keeffe dynasty, knocking on doors looking for her first votes is somewhat uncharted territory.

Lorraine O’Keeffe, a 35-year-old teacher and the youngest of Ned’s five children, is looking for a seat on Thurles Town Council. Not surprisingly, she’s running for Fianna Fáil.

However, she readily admits that politics and Fianna Fáil is very much in her blood.

“My first recollection of my father getting involved in politics was when he was nominated to the Seanad by Charles Haughey in February 1982,” Lorraine said.

By November of that year a general election put her father into the Dáil, representing the Cork East constituency.

“I was 19 when I first went on the canvass with my father. He has come up to Thurles to give a hand. It worked out well for him too, because he’s canvassing as well for Europe,” Lorraine said.

However, not a lot of people know that she is Ned O’Keeffe’s daughter.

“They often mix things up and think I’m Batt O’Keeffe’s daughter,” said Lorraine, who teaches maths and physical education at Presentation Convent Secondary School in the town.

Fianna Fáil have only one seat on the nine-seater Thurles Town Council.

“There are four Fianna Fáil candidates running this time, including me. I think I have a good chance of getting elected,” Lorraine said.

Surprisingly, she’d be happy enough with being a town councillor and has no ambition to go further up the political ladder.

“I don’t know if I would like to be a TD. I enjoy my job as a teacher too much and I wouldn’t want to give it up,” Lorraine said.

She believes that her father is in with a shout for a seat in the European Parliament, though she admits that she can’t see him overhauling sitting MEP and party colleague Brian Crowley.

“I think my father will do a lot better than the European polls are suggesting. He will pull out a lot of the rural vote. I think he’s in with a shout for the third and final seat,” Lorraine said.