Local elections: Everything you need to know about the Kanturk/Mallow constituency
Fine Gael’s John Paul O’Shea and his brother Tony O’Shea will lead the charge for their party in the local elections for the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District. Picture: David Creedon
- Ted Bradley – Green Party
- Finbarr Cronin – Ind
- Ian Doyle – FF
- Becky Healy – Aontú
- Bernard Moynihan – FF
- Trish Murphy – FG
- Brendan O’Connor - Independent Ireland
- Evelyn O’Keeffe - SF
- John Paul O’Shea - FG
- Andrew Ring – Social Democrats
- Ross Cannon – The Irish People
- David Curry – Social Democrats
- Pat Hayes – FF
- Eoghan Kenny – Lab
- Liam Madden – FG
- Paul McNally – Green Party
- Gearoid Murphy – FF
- Melissa O’Brien - SF
- Tony O’Shea - FG
- Paddy Scully – Aontú
It’s a bit unusual, if not unique nationally, to have two brothers seeking re-election for the same party in the same municipal district, but that’s the case in the Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District.
Fine Gael’s John Paul O’Shea and his brother Tony O’Shea will lead the charge for their party which is still coming to grips with the unexpected death a few weeks ago of former TD and long-serving county councillor and party mentor Gerard Murphy.
The Newmarket man will be sorely missed for his popularity on the campaign trail and for the advice he offered to his younger colleagues. Murphy had served as a councillor from 1992, apart from 2002-2007 when he was a TD for the region, and his absence is a major loss locally for Fine Gael.
The O’Sheas live less than a kilometre apart at Laharn, Lombardstown, near Mallow, yet they have divided up the constituency very effectively with one hunting votes in the eastern side and the other in the west.
Tony, 52, works as a driver for Cork County Council, so he’s constantly out and about meeting his constituents. He was first elected last time out in 2019, while John Paul, who works with the mental health division of HSE South, has been a councillor since 2009.
John Paul, who is his younger brother, is also the leader of the Fine Gael party on the Cork County Council.
He said the main issues on the doorsteps are housing, the poor state of some roads, and the delays in badly needed Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) water and sewerage projects which are stifling growth in towns and villages in the region.
However, while these could crop up anywhere in the country, he says municipal elections are more about localised issues and believes they will barely be influenced by the national politics of the day.
Fine Gael will also be hoping to that their third sitting councillor, Liam Madden, will retain the seat he first won in 2019.
Madden is expected to poll reasonably well in Mallow and more strongly to the south in Mourneabbey (where he lives), Grenagh and Burnfort.
He is one of the most prolific contributors to motions and debates at Kanturk/Mallow Municipal District Council meetings.
Madden is also a native of Buttevant so it’s expected he will pick up some votes there as well.
“Community issues are a big thing for me and planning for the future in rural areas, especially to enhance amenities in an effort to attract more young families into these areas in a big goal of mine,” he said.
The Kanturk/Malllow Municipal District is by far the biggest of the eight municipals in the county. Apart from the three large towns of Mallow, Charleville and Kanturk this constituency is a predominantly rural area.
The nine-seater stretches from just to the east of Mallow onto the northwest in Ballydesmond on the Cork, Kerry and Limerick border and from Charleville in the north to Grenagh in the south. In 2019, it returned four Fine Gael councillors and four from Fianna Fáil, along with one from Labour.
Sinn Féin is running two candidates in this municipal district this time around, one of whom is Melissa O’Brien. It was a surprise when she lost her seat in the 2019 elections. While living in Mallow, which is somewhat crowded with candidates, it is expected that she has a very good chance of getting elected again.
“We were unfortunate to lose the Sinn Féin seat in 2019. Our boundaries had been redrawn, and Mallow/Kanturk had been divided into two electoral areas, which was a challenge at the time. The Mallow electoral area was reduced from seven seats to five seats.
"Regrettably, we lost the seat, but we did manage to hold onto our proportion of the vote, as in 2014. While Sinn Féin had a poor day on a national level in 2019, Mallow actually fell outside (did better) the national trend,” Ms O’Brien said.
She, like other candidates, says housing is one of the biggest issues on the doorsteps.
“It has an impact on all age groups. The impact of skyrocketing rents to non-existent availability is disastrous for people's lives in every way. It is one of the largest problems this State is currently facing and it has to be resolved. We can no longer leave it to private landlords,” Ms O’Brien said.
Her running mate is Evelyn O’Keeffe, who is based in Charleville, with a strong track record in volunteerism. The mother of two grown-up daughters works as a community employment supervisor and has a Batchelor of Science degree in IT.
The surname Sherlock has been significant in elections in this region for two generations, but the Labour baton there has now been passed on to Eoghan Kenny.
Joe Sherlock was first elected to the Dáil in 1981 as a Sinn Féin – The Workers’ Party TD. He served two further terms, after some electoral hiatuses in between, first with Democratic Left and then Labour. Prior to being in Leinster House he was a long-term member of Mallow Urban District Council and Cork County Council.
His son, Sean, has served as a Labour TD since 2007 and has held three junior ministries. He announced last October that he would not seek a seat again in the Dáil.
Mr Kenny, 24, was co-opted onto the council when long-serving Mallow-based town councillor and later county councillor James Kennedy decided to retire a few months ago.
Mr Kenny had been Sean Sherlock’s part-time secretary for the past 18 months, so he knows the ropes pretty well and has the backing of a solid canvassing team built up by the Sherlocks over the years.
A secondary school teacher at Coachford College he's only one of two outgoing Labour councillors on the county council, the other being Cobh-based Cathal Rasmussen.
Mr Kenny acknowledges that it will not be easy, especially as Labour has shrunk nationally in the polls to just 3%, and that the vote-getting prowess of the Sherlocks will be a hard act to follow.
However, he says he is buoyed by the fact that Mallow has a long history of trade unionism grounded in the many factories it had and still has to an albeit lesser extent now.
He said:
Meanwhile, there are four incumbent Fianna Fáil councillors who will be hard to dislodge.
Fianna Fáil councillor Bernard Moynihan, who lives in the Western Duhallow village of Kiskeam, will have the backing of a very seasoned team of canvassers and supporters, especially as his brother, Michael Moynihan, is the party’s sitting TD in the Cork North-West Dáil constituency.
Fianna Fáil’s Ian Doyle is also expected to poll quite well. The fuel merchant is very popular in the Charleville area, especially for the years of charitable work he has undertaken with St Vincent de Paul.
Meanwhile, there are two more flying the flag for the party in Mallow.
They are barrister Gearoid Murphy, who is very sharp in debating circles with his legal knowledge, and has been tipped by some in the party for greater things. Then there’s Pat Hayes who runs a popular sports/outdoor equipment centre in the town.
Both Mallow-based councillors were elected for the first time in 2019.
Aontú is running two candidates in this municipal council district. One is Kanturk native Becky Kealy, 28, who has a master’s degree in chemistry from UCC and works in the pharmaceutical industry. The other is chartered engineer Paddy Scully who lectures in TUS Limerick on the Built Environment.
Breandan O’Connor, a community activist of nearly 20 years and who lives in Newmarket, is flying the flag for the Independent Ireland party.
The Social Democrats have two candidates in David Curry and Andrew Ring.
Curry, who is from the Mallow area, is heavily involved in sports such as the rugby, soccer and GAA clubs in his area. He is also a committed volunteer for the Friends of Mallow General Hospital and the Mallow Arts Alliance.
On the north/northwestern side of the constituency they are pitching Ring into the battle. He is living in Charleville and works as an executive officer for Irish Rail.
A native of Ballyhea, he said he was inspired to get involved in politics “because I believe our community needs fresh ideas and a new perspective”.
One of the big issues in the region that all candidates agree on, apart from health and housing, is the need to fast-track the development of the proposed upgrading of the N/M20 road between Cork and Limerick.
The majority of candidates are also concerned about the serious delay in developing the northern ring road in Mallow. Its town centre is now seriously congested with traffic, especially HGVs.
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