Flood relief candidate Gillian Powell encounters plenty of support on streets of Bandon

A flood relief candidate hopes to be Cork South West’s very first female TD, says Catherine Shanahan

CALL it traditional, call it conservative, call it patriarchal, but don’t try and call the result in Cork South West where a handful of women are doing their damnedest to end its reign as the only constituency to have never returned a female TD.

This time around, there are five in the mix: Fianna Fáil’s Margaret Murphy O’Mahony, Rachel McCarthy of Sinn Féin, and three independents, Theresa Heaney, Fiona Pettit, and Gillian Powell.