Siblings to contest council elections

Thomas McEllistrim, the former Fianna Fáil TD for north Kerry, has said his sister Anne McEllistrim, the sitting Tralee area councillor, is to seek a nomination in the Killarney area — while he is hoping for a council seat in the Tralee electoral zone.

Political sources are said to have taken the news as a clever move by the McEllistrims who have made no secret of their intention to leave no stone unturned to win back the third-generation family seat in the Dáil which was lost in the last general election.

The Kerry Fianna Fáil conventions for the May 2014 local elections are being held in the coming weeks. There had been intense speculation that Mr McEllistrim would seek a nomination there and that his sister Anne — who replaced him on Kerry County Council in 2004 following the ending of the dual mandate — would stay in the Tralee area.