With a total of 11 Independent candidates running in this year’s local elections, it was surprising to learn late on Sunday evening that only one of them was successful in taking a seat on Kilkenny local authorities this time around.
It was the year of the Independent with many candidates feeling that their former party, Fianna Fail, was not the party for them anymore and with others thinking that it was a time that people may be more interested in a non-party-minded candidate.
And as much as we all thought this was true - it did not transfer into votes at the end of the day.
Dixie Doyle, who was a sitting Independent councillor lost his seat this time around after many years on the county council. He was narrowly beaten to the post by new Fianna Fail candidate Sean Treacy.
Dr Pat Crowley of Kells in the Callan Electoral Area was the only successful candidate. He received 1,183 first preference votes, immediately indicating his popularity in his area. He was elected on the third count along with two Fianna Gael and one Fianna Fail representative - an admirable accomplishment for someone running non-party for the first time.
Other Independents who did quite well were Mick Greene who was in the race for a seat on the borough council until the very end. There were only 24 votes between the seat winner and himself at the last count.
Jimmy Leahy also gave a good performance with 344 first preference votes but he was eliminated on the 13th count.
Frank Kavanagh gave it his all and turned out 272 first preferences but was eliminated on the 10th count.
Eugene McGuinness didn’t do as well as expected receiving 176 first preference votes and ending up with 201 before being eliminated on the fourth count.
Roger O’ Reilly, who couldn’t have expected to dowell as he only declared himself as a candidate a few weeks before the election — unsurprisingly he polled just 26 first preference votes and was eliminated on the fourth count with just 27 votes.
Dissident Fianna Fail-ers Joan Murphy and Anne Blackmore also failed in their bid as Independents in the south of the county.
The public has spoken and it’s clear the Kilkenny public feel that party power rules over people power. Let’s see if this is true.
