The clock is ticking. General Election 2020 is now just 4 days away.
And here at LaoisToday, we have surveyed all of the 26 candidates who are running in Laois-Offaly and Kildare South.
We asked candidates a total of 13 questions and 18 of them responded in full.
Some of the questions were serious, others were a bit more light-hearted.
We will be publishing their responses every evening between now and the election itself on February 8.
So far, we have asked them what the biggest issue in their constituency is, their favourite films and ideal dinner guests, pet hates and favourite TV programmes, whether social media is a good or a bad thing, their earliest political memories and what they wanted to be growing up a child, the politicians they admire most and would they be willing to enter coalitions.
Today we ask them who they reckon is the greatest person of all time in their area.
The candidates that didn’t respond are listed also.
LAOIS-OFFALY
Marcella Corcoran-Kennedy (Fine Gael)
Greatest Offaly person of all time? Too many greats from culture, sport and science to chose from.
John Daly (The National Party)
Greatest Laois person of all time? Tommy Murphy.
Charlie Flanagan (Fine Gael)
Greatest Laois person of all time? William Dargan (Killeshin) Architect Railway Engineer, Scientist. Responsible for the Industrial Exhibition, 1853.
Pauline Flanagan (Fianna Fáil)
Greatest Laois person of all time? Apart from my husband, I would have to say James Fintan Lalor for his role in the Young Ireland and Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association. He really was a man before his time.
Sean Fleming (Fianna Fail)
Greatest Laois person of all time? Too many to mention.
Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
Greatest Offaly person of all time? My good neighbour and friend Christopher Fettes. In his 80s now, but forty years ago, he had the vision to set up the Green Party in Ireland. He spent his life educating people, and is still doing that. He was acutely aware of our impact on the environmental, and at a time when many chose to deny or ignore it. Yet here we are in the midst of a global crisis in climate and biodiversity, and it seems to be up to our youth to raise awareness of this. We should all be worried about the future.
Noel O’Rourke (Renua)
Greatest Laois person of all time? James Fintan Lalor.
Brian Stanley (Sinn Féin)
Greatest Laois person of all time? James Fintan Lalor.
Noel Tuohy (Labour)
Greatest Laois person of all time? James Fintan Lalor.
Did not respond: Barry Cowen (Fianna Fail); John Leahy (Independent); Carol Nolan (Independent), Peter Ormond (Fianna Fáil); Ken Smollen (Irish Democratic Party); Stephen Tynan (People Before Profit),
KILDARE SOUTH
Cathal Berry (Independent)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? Dermot Earley Senior. Roscommon by birth, but Kildare by the grace of God.
Linda Hayden (Social Democrats)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? St Brigid was a fierce woman, standing up for people, doing amazing work within the community, so much so her father tried to sell her for giving all his possessions away. We could all be a bit more like St Brigid.
Martin Heydon (Fine Gael)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? A combination of: St. Bridget, greatest woman, Ernest Shackleton our greatest explorer, Christy Moore greatest singer, Squires Gannon greatest footballer, last Kildare man to lift Sam Maguire in 1928.
Ronan Maher (Green Party)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? Ernest Shackleton, Christy Moore was a close second but Shackleton pushed the bounds of human exploration several times and there’s very few people that have even come close to that achievement.
Fiona McLoughlin-Healy (Independent)
Who do you think is the greatest Kildare person of all time? Bernard Healy – my husband has to be one of the best Kildare people ever! He manages to keep a hectic household with full calendars somehow on track when he’s an incredibly busy
GP himself. Now that I have the brownie points, I would also add Ernest Shackleton and Kathleen Lonsdale, scientist who invented X-ray crystallography.
Anita Mhic Ghib (Aontu)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? John Devoy.
Fiona O’Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? St Brigid, Michael Osborne, Orla Tinsley.
Roisin Ui Bhroin (Solidarity-People Before Profit)
Greatest Kildare person of all time? Christy Moore.
Did not respond: Suzanne Doyle (Fianna Fáil); Patricia Ryan (Sinn Féin); Mark Wall (Labour)
SEE ALSO – Check out all the 2020 General Election coverage on LaoisToday
