Brian Phelan is set to be a candidate for Fianna Fáil in next year’s Local Elections in the Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick Municipal District.
From Rathdowney, Phelan will be the fifth Fianna Fáil candidate in that sprawling area alongside sitting councillors Paddy Bracken and Seamus McDonald as well as the Castletown-based Fintan Cuddy and Declan Goode in Clonaslee.
As it stands there are six councillors in that district – the aforementioned Fianna Fáil duo as well as Fine Gael’s Conor Bergin and John King and independents Ollie Clooney and James Kelly.
Though Phelan didn’t contest the Fianna Fáil selection convention earlier this year, he is being added to the ticket having been interviewed by party headquarters.
Phelan, who is aged in his early 40s, and lives in Donaghmore with his wife and three young children has been heavily involved in the likes of the Rathdowney Community Development Forum as well as Borris-Kilcotton GAA club and Clover Utd soccer club in Rathdowney.
He has his own property business in Rathdowney and is also involved in the property management industry in Dublin.
He comes with a strong Fianna Fáil heritage with his father Brendan, his uncle Kieran and his grandfather Pat having represented the party in Laois County Council.
Another uncle, Laurence, was a Fianna Fáil candidate in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington district in 2014.
Kieran, who was elected in 1991, was also a Senator prior to his untimely death in 2010. Upon Kieran’s election as a Senator in 2002, Brendan was co-opted to the council before winning the seat in his own right in 2004 and 2009 as a Fianna Fáil candidate.
However, a change in FF policy meant that Brendan wasn’t selected as a candidate for the 2014 election, despite being a sitting councillor, though he duly ran as an independent and was comfortably elected, getting 1,097 first preference votes.
His share of the vote fell five years later in 2019 to 931 first preferences and he eventually lost his seat after a marathon count with Conor Bergin and Ollie Clooney coming in to replace Phelan and Fine Gael’s David Goodwin.
Now, five years on, his son Brian is back on the ballot paper and the Phelan name is back in the Fianna Fáil camp.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 Local Election coverage here
