*Amanda Major (IND). Photograph: Joe Buckley
IN JUNE, when Amanda Major (IND) said she was “done with politics”, five months on with a General Election campaign under her belt and she said the fun is only beginning in her political career.
After polling 205 first preferences, Amanda was eliminated on the second count of the General Election in Clare.
Prior to polling day, she had told The Clare Echo she was not confident of causing an upset so after arriving in the count centre on Sunday, having had some time to absorb her elimination at 22:30 on Saturday, she was pointing to the positives of her campaign. “I was not really expecting anything different but like I said, anyway, I put my name forward to raise a topic, you know, which is the health care system in Clare and I think I’ve succeeded in doing that. I just hope now that the four TDs who got the seats will move on it and make sure that that is done, between the five years that they are there that they deliver a gold standard health care system for Co Clare”.
This was her third run for office following unsuccessful attempts in the Ennis Municipal District in 2019 and 2024 where she polled 200 and 396 first preference votes respectively. The Ennis woman has been an Irish citizen since 2015, she formerly lived in Direct Provision and has also resided in Scariff and Shannon.
Following her defeat in June, she announced “I’m done with politics” but within a matter of months was back in the game and bidding to become a TD and the mother of four equated any election campaign with giving birth. “I know I said that, but, like, then I said, when a woman is going through labour, you know, when you’re in that process of pain, you can say anything, and then you’re back in the next nine months”.
She continued, “you know, you are out. you’re canvassing. You’re working, meeting people. It’s not easy. It’s really not easy. For the local election, I put a lot into it because I was expecting at least to get a seat just like every other candidate, but when that did not happen, I was a bit disappointed at the time, but as long as there’s good health, there’s life, we keep moving on, we keep doing it, then less than four months on the General Election comes and I said why not put my name forward again”.
Amanda said she will remain active “in the community” with a run for the local elections in 2029 looking likely. “One thing that I keep saying is, being a community activist is, you don’t really need to have a seat in the front table, to do what you love to do. I love to work with my community, I love to help people and listen. I’m involved in different, voluntary organisations, so I will keep doing what I do. So come four years time with the local election, if I look at the situation of things that I think okay I want to put my name forward why not”.
There remains a strong possibility that she will rejoin Fianna Fáil in the interval, she had attempted to secure the party’s nomination to run in the Ennis MD and was also unsuccessful in the co-option of Novemeber 2022 which saw Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) chosen to take Mark Nestor’s (FF) seat. “I left Fianna Fáil because I wanted to put my name forward, I left because I wanted to put my name forward, I might go back because I think there’s unfinished business there, I think I can work with the party much more than being on the front seat, there’s other things that need to be done”.
Regarding her political career, Amanda told The Clare Echo, “we’re just starting, the game has just been so fun, now we are expected to have a Minister in Co Clare with Fianna Fáil succeeding in getting two seats, I think Timmy (Dooley) was saying that so hopefully we will have a Minister in Co Clare, I look forward to that and the great things they are going to do in Co Clare”.
