Sitting councillor sure to lose seat in ‘ward of death’
Boundary changes have reduced this former five seater to a four-seat battleground.
With five sitting councillors competing with three other candidates for just four seats, this eight-man race will be one of the most fiercely contested wards in the city.
And with the anticipated voter backlash against the Government and Fianna Fáil, there are concerns that its only sitting councillor, Tony Fitzgerald, could be at risk.
He will most likely to battle for political survival alongside Fine Gael’s Joe O’Callaghan and Labour’s Mick O’Connell.
Should Cllr Fitzgerald lose out, it would be a devastating blow for the party which held two seats in this ward after the 2004 election.
Cllr Fitzgerald, who as a first-time candidate in 2004 took the ward’s fifth seat with 474 votes, is playing in to a gale this time out in an area where unemployment, tax hikes and cuts in take-home pay are major issues.
He will be hoping however that his years of work with community groups in the Knocknaheeny area will stand to him.
The Fianna Fáil party’s second seat in this ward was won by Cllr Dave McCarthy on the first count in 2004, with 1,112 votes, just behind poll topping Sinn Féin Cllr Jonathan O’Brien, who polled 1,150 votes.
But Cllr McCarthy resigned from the party in 2007 over candidate selection issues for the general election. He is standing on June 5 as an independent.
He suffered a minor heart attack last week and despite spending several days in hospital, he was back on the campaign trail earlier this week.
His record of community and sporting involvement, coupled with his massive personal vote, should see him retain his seat.
Cllr Fitzgerald is joined on the party ticket by Blackpool-based GP Dr John Sheehan.
A long-serving and experienced figure in Fianna Fáil circles in Cork, Dr Sheehan landed himself in hot water late last month by putting up his election posters early. That will probably be the only impact he will have in this year’s election.
But observers will also be watching the performance of Blarney-based Fine Gael Cllr Joe O’Callaghan, who was co-opted to replace Colm Burke, who in turn replaced Simon Coveney in Europe, and who is running in this ward for the first time.
He failed to win a seat in 2004 when he contested for the party in Cork North Central as the party’s second candidate. But he has built a high profile during his time on the council and has performed very strongly on issues like anti-social behaviour.
The fact that he is the only Fine Gael candidate in this ward, coupled with the predicted swing against the Government, could secure his seat.
Labour’s Michael O’Connell, the party’s sole candidate in this ward, won the fourth seat in 2004 with just over 10% of the vote. He will be hoping to build on that performance and capitalise on his party’s strong national performance.
Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O’Brien is likely to take the first seat again this time out.
He pipped Cllr McCarthy in 2004, taking 17.25% of the vote – making history in the process as the first Sinn Féin member to top the poll in 80 years.
The fact that he built upon his local election success by polling 3,456 first preference votes in the 2007 general election, coupled with the fact that there has always been a strong Sinn Féin vote in this part of the northside, should see him retain his council seat with ease.
The other candidates include Mick Crowley of the Workers’ Party who secured over 5% of the vote in the last election.
The Green Party is also running classical musician Nicholas McMurry, who also contested for a Dáil seat in this area in 2002. The party’s candidate in the 2004 local election campaign polled just under 3% of the vote.
The ward’s reduction to a four seat will make it difficult for either of these candidates to make a breakthrough in an area where unemployment, job creation, anti-social behaviour, urban regeneration and the future of St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital are all key issues.
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