*Leonora Carey (FG). Photograph: Joe Buckley
MAYOR OF Clare, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) has said he is still “baffled” by Fine Gael’s decision not to nominate Leonara Carey (FG) to the Seanad.
In February, Clarecastle woman Leonora contested the Seanad election for the Labour Panel where she polled 51,000 first preferences (4.4%). She was eliminated on the twelfth count.
This was the second election contested by Leonora in the space of three months. Her General Election attempt was her first run for public office, here she 5,251 first preference votes.
An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin (FF) is allowed nominate eleven people to the Seanad, six of which were Fianna Fáil members and five were from Fine Gael.
Fine Gael headquarters opting not to nominate Carey to the Seanad is part of the identity problem within the party according to Cllr Paul Murphy (FG). He told The Clare Echo, “We need to look to South Munster, we’ve gone a bit too Dublin centric for my liking, it does sound parochial but I go back to the selection of the Taoiseach’s nominees for Seanad, Fine Gael got to choose a few of those and I have to say my party colleague Leonora Carey performed admirably in the General Election and was overlooked for a nomination for the Seanad, I was baffled by that.
“There was two councillors put forward and two of the Fine Gael picks came from Donegal, I don’t think we’ll win two seats in Donegal but we could win a second seat in Clare. A lot of grassroots Fine Gael is in Munster, it is the old traditional farming vote, a lot of the core farming community are Fine Gael voters, we need to wake up and realise that”.
A qualified occupational therapist, Leonoara was a member of the Fine Gael Executive Council for a decade, serving as Chairperson for two years. For ten years, she was a member of the Fine Gael Executive Council, she served as Chairperson for two years. Leonora is a qualified occupational therapist (OT) by profession, with over 25 years’ clinical experience and 17 years as an OT manager.
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 2024.
