*Noeleen Moran has received nominations but will not be put forward as a candidate.
TROUBLE IS BREWING IN Sinn Féin with Ballyvaughan’s Noeleen Moran set to be deprived of a chance to contest this week’s General Election selection convention despite receiving nominations from two branches in Clare.
On Thursday (August 10th), Sinn Féin will select its candidate to contest the next General Election in the county. Clare has been designated as a female only candidate area by party headquarters with Sinn Féin to have one candidate in the constituency on the ballot paper.
Both the East Clare Cumann and North Clare Cumann had nominated Noeleen Moran to contest the selection convention but this is not sufficient to allow her to go before party members, due to recent rule changes.
As a result, it means Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) will be the only eligible candidate and there will be no vote at the convention.
In correspondence issued to Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Chairperson of the East Clare Cumann, Harry Duggan and Chairperson of the North Clare Cumann, Philip Fahy appealed for an intervention to allow a vote proceed.
The Clare Echo has obtained a copy of this correspondence to Deputy McDonald. “Two cumainn, North Clare and East Clare, nominated Noeleen Moran to contest the upcoming Clare General election Convention.
“However a recent rule change requires a nominee to get a second nomination from one of a number of party structures. As there is no Comhairle Ceanntair in Clare – only an Executive- a nomination was required from either the Munster Cúige, an Ard Comhairle or the national officer board. None of those bodies would give Noeleen a nomination. They only gave a nomination to one contestant. So therefore Noeleen cannot contest the convention, and the members in Clare are given no say in the selection of a candidate. No reason was given for the refusal to give a nomination.
“It looks like the selection was predetermined and a candidate is being imposed on us. The optics look very bad, to say the least. Surely a better and fairer way would have been for the nominating bodies to give nominations to any qualifying members who wished to contest the convention and allow the members in Clare to select the candidate of their choice. We are appealing to you to intervene and let the members have their say. The way this has been handled so far has caused anger and resentment and will do long-lasting damage to the party in Clare if not dealt with. We think it is especially important that members should be listened to this time around since the party got it so wrong in Clare in 2020,” the correspondence added.
