*Leonora Carey (FG) speaking in the count centre. Photograph: Joe Buckley
CLARE will not be represented by the member of the Carey family in Dáil Éireann for the first time in almost two decades after Leonora Carey (FG) came up just short in her quest to become a TD.
Her father Donal (FG) was first elected to the Dáil in 1982, he retained the seat for five subsequent campaigns until he lost out in 2002. Five years later, his son and Leonora’s brother Joe (FG) was elected and was a TD for four terms until announcing his retirement from politics on medical grounds in August.
Although she spent four terms on the Fine Gael Executive Council and was a campaign manager for Paschal Donohoe (FG), this General Election was Leonora’s first run for office. “I am humbled and thrilled to have got the vote that I’ve got here. I was the last woman standing, and, you know, I think that shows the support, that the people have of Co Clare had for me and that they could see that, actually, I had the potential to be a good TD for them,” she said following her elimination on sixteenth and final count.
She polled 5,251 first preferences and proved to be transfer friendly. When asked why she didn’t get over the line, Carey replied, “I don’t know Paudie”.
Over the coming days and weeks, members of her team will reflect on the campaign. “I had the most fantastic team working with me, both personal friends and Fine Gael family, friends and family. My director of elections, Sinead Carey, was amazing, Hannah Fitzgerald, who helped me with my social media, she’s a final year student in UL, has been phenomenal. There’s plenty of time to reflect on what we could have done differently. We’ve worked night and day for the last number of weeks to try meet as many people to get support, and certainly when I came away from doors having canvassed people, I was coming away feeling, they’ve heard me, and that they wanted to support me. I think that has been shown in the number ones, but also in the transfers that I got, I think I had a great team, and I’m very happy with the campaign that I ran”.
Supporters of both Leonora and the Carey family were in tears when the result was announced. “I put myself forward because I wanted to be a TD for Co Clare, and that was one of the reasons. The second reason actually was because I wanted to help maximise the Fine Gael vote, and I’m delighted to be able to say that we did that, Joe Cooney, TD, as he is now, Dr Tom Nolan and I worked hard to maximise that vote. We did that. We’ve got one TD returned for the county, for Fine Gael, and I hope that we’ll see us in government”.
On her experience from the election, she said, “I loved every minute of it”. She added, “I don’t think it’s the end of Leonora Carey”. This could suggest a potential Seanad bid but Carey said she would time to consider her options, “I need to talk to my friends and family over the next 48 hours, and we’ll see what comes out of that”.
Political analysts have suggested that Leonora could have aided her profile by running in the local elections in June following Johnny Flynn’s (FG) resignation. “As I said to you before when you asked me that five weeks, we had a fantastic candidate in Paul Murphy, I was very happy to support him and get him re-elected”.
When it was put to her that she could have done so without taking from Murphy’s campaign in Clarecastle, she replied, “I was very happy to support Paul, in his campaign for the local elections. I have no I have no regrets over my work that I did in terms of the local elections, and I have no regrets over the work that I did, in this general election that has just passed”.
Days in advance of polling day, her signs were altered in Ennis to say ‘local TD’. “I think that’ll remain to be seen,” the Clarecastle woman said on the loss of the county town not having a representative in the Dáil. She added, “I certainly look forward to working with Deputy Cooney in terms of how we promote, what the county needs to have delivered on and worked on, and that’ll include Ennis A&E”.
