Labour's young bloods win three seats on Cork City Council

Areas with a lapsed party vote were targeted, says former Labour TD and junior minister Kathleen Lynch

Labour candidate John Maher is congratulated by Kathleen Lynch as his election is announced at Cork City Hall on Saturday. Picture: Larry Cummins

From Labour pains to political gains, former Labour TD and junior minister Kathleen Lynch has hailed her party’s young bloods for winning three seats on Cork City Council by targeting areas with a lapsed party vote.

“We knew where the Labour vote existed and we went out to reconvince those people that we could be trusted and they came through for us," said Ms Lynch. 

"I think it was about convincing people that the Labour Party is here to stay, that we didn’t flip-flop on issues. 

"People knew very well where we stood, we didn’t back off on any issue. Our policies are very well developed and this is the fruit of that campaign," she said.

While Fianna Fáil won nine of the council’s 31 seats, up one on its 2019 result, Fine Gael lost two seats to go to five, Sinn Féin won four, Labour won three, as did the Greens, while the Social Democrats and Solidarity/People Before Profit have a seat each. Independents and non-party councillors won the remaining five seats.

Five councillors, including four women, lost their seats — the Green Party’s Colette Finn, Rabharta’s Lorna Bogue, Sinn Féin’s Mick Nugent and Orla O’Leary, and Fine Gael’s Deirdre Forde.

The number of women on the council has dropped from seven to five, around 16% of the council, but there is now a better city-wide spread of female representation. 

Since Solidarity-People Before Profit councillor Fiona Ryan's resignation, there has been no female councillor on the northside but, now, each of the city's local electoral areas has one.

Headline stories

Among the headline stories were the huge personal vote of Independent Ireland councillor Ken O’Flynn; the Greens' Honore Kamegni as the city’s first black councillor; Padraig Rice as the Social Democrats’ first councillor in the city; the election of Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gould, the wife of party TD Thomas Gould; the breakthrough of non-party councillor Albert Deasy in the south west, and Solidarity councillor Brian McCarthy’s defeat of far right activist Ross Lahive to secure the final seat in north west.

John Maher has been Labour's sole representative on the council for the last five years.

"That’s not a good place to be, not to have support, even though he worked very well with other parties,” said Ms Lynch.

“The party was at such a low ebb that it set out a very clear strategy of what we wanted to do. We weren’t going to go from one seat to 10. We knew that. We were very, very conservative in our aspirations, and we didn’t do it in a short term. We started out on a campaign last year and we went out to convince people that Labour was a party to be trusted. I think that worked."

Labour candidates Laura Harmon, the first female president of the Union of Students in Ireland, and Peter Horgan both won their seats on Sunday.

Ms Lynch said every party needs “new blood” and must encourage young candidates.

“There are a lot of politicians that don’t want to see that happening but if you believe in the future of your politics then that is really what you have to do.”