Expelled Cork politician to join next poll

The Sinn Fein party in East Cork is set to be thrown into turmoil tonight when a member it expelled and then tried to reinstate announces he is to run as an Independent candidate in the next general election. 

Councillor Kieran McCarthy, 55, will make the announcement at a meeting of supporters in his hometown of Cobh that he will run as a candidate in the Cork East constituency.

It is expected he will take votes away from the sitting Sinn Fein TD Sandra McLellan, who Mr McCarthy and other Sinn Féin members have criticised in the past.