*Cllr Joe Killeen & Cllr Shane Talty at The Falls Hotel in Ennistymon.
SITTING COUNCILLORS, Shane Talty and Joe Killeen have both been selected as Fianna Fáil’s candidates for the Ennistymon local electoral area.
Both Cllr Talty and Cllr Killeen were the only nominees for the selection convention which was held on Monday evening at The Falls Hotel in Ennistymon. The duo are aspiring to be elected for a second term on Clare County Council when the local elections are held in May 2024.
They are the first confirmed candidates in the entire county ahead of next year’s local elections. Fianna Fáil are to hold their selection conventions for the Killaloe Municipal District and Ennis Municipal District in the coming weeks, no date has been set for the Kilrush local electoral area and the Shannon Municipal District.
Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF), Senator Timmy Dooley (FF), former Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen (FF) and retired councillor Richard Nagle were among those present in Ennistymon for the selection convention. Both Deputy Crowe and Senator Dooley addressed the gathering along with the sitting councillors.
More than thirty members of the party were present for at the Falls Hotel but no vote was needed with only two candidates declared.
In what was an impressive first election bid, Lahinch native Talty topped the poll in the Ennistymon LEA in 2019 amassing 1,977 number one votes which saw him elected on the first count. Only Deputy Crowe, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) and Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) secured higher tallies than the postmaster in their respective electoral areas. Shane is currently the Cathaoirleach of the West Clare Municipal District, a role he will hold until the end of June.
Despite only having a single month of canvassing in 2019, it didn’t stop Killeen from winning a seat, he did receive less first preferences (13.91%) than Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) (15.45%), Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) (15.14%) and Bill Slattery (FG) (15.15%) but beat them all to secure the second seat. A former principal of Lough Gutra NS in Gort, Killeen also spent a year as President of INTO and since his election to the Council, he has served as Leas Cathaoirleach of the local authority.
