*Senator Paul Gavan (SF), Mary Lou McDonald (SF) and Dawn Bennett (SF).
WEST CLARE businesswoman, Dawn Bennett (SF) has been confirmed as Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Kilrush local electoral for the June 7th elections.
From Kilkee and living in Cross, Dawn is the owner of CocoLemon hairdressers in Kilrush. The Limerick native moved to West Clare five years ago. Ironically it is the second link to the cosmetic trade in the election race, Dinny Gould’s (IND) daughter Sarah owns Riverside Hair & Beauty in Cree.
She is the party’s fifth candidate in Clare for the local elections joining Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) in the Ennis MD, Martina Cleary (SF) in the Killaloe MD while Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) and James Ryan (SF) are both running in the Shannon MD.
In the 2019 local elections, Violet-Anne Wynne ran for the party in the Kilrush LEA where she received 385 first preference votes and was eliminated on the fifth count. A year later, Violet-Anne became a Clare TD after topping the poll in the General Election with 8,987 first preference votes, she left Sinn Féin in February 2022 citing a campaign of “psychological warfare”.
In a statement, Dawn said her interest in politics came from listening to the current leader of Sinn Féin. “It started from listening to Mary Lou McDonald. She was offering common sense solutions and was so down to earth. Mary Lou and Sinn Féin are for the people and I love to help people whenever I can, so it was the right party for me. I’m a carer myself so I know how difficult it is to get access to the services people need”. Dawn met Mary Lou when she was in Limerick last week to launch the campaign of Senator Paul Gavan (SF) who is running as the party’s candidate in Ireland South for the European elections.
On her decision to relocate to West Clare in 2019, Dawn said, “we made our home here. It’s a beautiful place to raise a family, and the surroundings are absolutely magical. I really feel that this is my community and I want to help my community. I want to help increase footfall for Kilrush as an economic driver for the whole area. There is some deprivation and some social problems in the area and I want to help to improve things to the best of my ability”.
“We need change, we’re listening to the same jargon for years, it’s just empty promise after empty promise. My son is on the autism spectrum and there are little to no services for him. Like many other parents, I’ve had to be his advocate and voice, I’ve had to do his speech therapy for him because he doesn’t get that as a consistent service. So, I’ve experienced first-hand the lack of services and I know families struggling with all kinds of challenges
on their own and it’s not good enough. I want to help families in West Clare to get services”.
Dawn added, “I also want to help small businesses to cope with business costs. This effects tourism and hospitality, the services sector and has a knock-on effect. We can stimulate employment and the local economy if we tackle the obstacles faced by small businesses”.
There are “very few” entertainment and diversion facilities for children in West Clare, she lamented.
