A date has been set for the upcoming Trinity College Seanad by-election where a Laois man is in the running for the seat.
Back in December, Labour’s Eoin Barry signaled his intention to contest the seat that has been vacant since the long-serving TCD senator Ivana Bacik won the Dublin Bay South by-election as in July.
It has been announced that nominations will close on February 11 with ballot papers issued on February 25.
The poll will close on March 30 with the winners announced soon after.
The writ for the by-election was moved in the Upper House in mid-November by Ms Bacik’s Labour Party colleague Rebecca Moynihan.
There were 70,000 eligible voters on the register for Dublin University for last year’s Seanad election though only a turnout of about 20%.
Wolfhill native Eoin Barry ran for Labour in the 2019 Local Elections in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington District.
He was also initially selected to contest the 2020 General Election in Laois-Offaly as a Labour candidate though he didn’t go forward and the party was represented by sitting councillor Noel Tuohy.
A Social Worker in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Mr Barry previously explained why he has decided to run for this position.
Among those who have already declared their candidacy as Independents are media lecturer and former army officer, Dr Tom Clonan; climate academic and former Green Party Councillor Sadhbh O’Neill; and former rugby international Hugo McNeill, husband of Fine Gael TD Jennifer O’Carroll-McNeill.
Ursula Quill, a PhD student, is also running as an Independent. She is a former assistant to Ms Bacik.
Another PhD student at Trinity, Ryan Alberto Ó Giobúin has also declared as a candidate.
Social Democrats Councillor Carly Bailey and Gisèle Scanlon, president of TCD’s Graduate Students’ Union, are also among the candidates who have expressed their intention to run.
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