The 2024 Local Elections loom large on the horizon and the launch of Sinn Féin’s campaign in Portlaoise last night is as good a sign as any that the countdown to polling day is well and truly underway.
While there have been a handful of individual campaign launches – of both independent and political party candidates – this was the first collective party event ahead of the election on June 7.
And Sinn Féin mean business: running a record number of candidates in a bid to win a record number of seats.
More than 50 supporters crammed into a meeting room in the Parish Centre where the local party faithful were addressed by six of the seven council candidates, TD Brian Stanley, MEP Chris McManus and the local Director of Elections Andrew Kelly.
Sitting councillor Aidan Mullins from Portarlington was unavoidably absent but the rest were out in force with a decent geographic spread.
Aaron Kelly from Graiguecullen, Helen Campion from Rathdowney, Lorna Holohan-Garry from Mountmellick, Jason Phelan from Abbeyleix and Caroline Dwane-Stanley and Maria McCormack from Portlaoise, though the latter’s roots are in Ballyroan which forms part of the Portlaoise Municipal District.
They have three candidates running in Portlaoise and two in each of Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick and Graiguecullen-Portarlington.
“We have a great slate of candidates,” said Deputy Brian Stanley in his speech.
“Aidan (Mullins) and Caroline (Dwane-Stanley) have achieved great things on the council despite being just two Sinn Féin councillors out of 19. Imagine what we could achieve with seven out of 19.
“We have seven weeks now to win or lose it. This is the most important election we’ve faced yet.”
Reflecting on his own first attempt at being elected – to the now defunct Portlaoise Town Commission in 1994 – he told the gathering that after the first count, he was in seventh place for nine seats.
But as the count went on, he slipped further and further back.
“We didn’t pick up the transfers,” he recalled. “We hadn’t the work done. But we have the work done now.”
Chris McManus – the Sligo native who is a sitting MEP and is running again in the sprawling 15-county Midlands North West constituency – told the meeting that he was first elected to the Sligo Borough in the 1999 Local Elections, the same day that Brian Stanley got his foot in the door to the Portlaoise Town Commission.
McManus reminded the candidates that the role of a councillor is a “full-time responsibility with a part-time wage” but “there is nothing as rewarding as the experience of fighting for your community”.
He said the party must continue their politics of “Irish republicanism” and “elections are always a measure of our activism”.
“You are the leading voices in your community and as councillors it’s important to be rooted, relevant and republican.”
Housing, healthcare and national unity were the three priorities he pointed to – “we need to ensure we’re putting down strong, long-term roots from one election to the next that Sinn Féin can lead the government”.
Emotively stirring the 1916 Proclamation, he said “we should never forget the shoulders of the greats we stand on” and finished with a rousing “let’s make sure we return with the largest Sinn Féin team ever”.
Across the meeting there were similar themes in the various speeches.
Housing and healthcare were constantly mentioned and a stated consensus that “Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have ruled the roost for too long” as Caroline Dwane-Stanley put it.
“The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors are too comfortable with each other,” added Cllr Dwane-Stanley. “The stale politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael needs to be changed.”
Abbeyleix candidate Jason Phelan, who is also in the Portlaoise Municipal District, said “Sinn Féin is the party to bring about change and a more equal society”.
“Every single person who has a vote needs to use that vote to bring about change.”
“Although policies aren’t made at local level, it’s where change starts,” said Maria McCormack. “I grew up with the mentality that if I can do something to help, I won’t leave it to someone else.”
“Every person on this island should have the opportunity to thrive,” said Aaron Kelly. “Nobody should be left behind.
“We want to leave this room with a new energy, a new Sinn Féin energy. We want record seats in Laois and to take over council chambers all over the country.
“Let’s go out there and make history together in June.”
“Now more than ever people are crying out for change. People are on their knees,” said the Mountmellick-based Lorna Holohan-Garry who ran in 2019 when she got 649 first preference votes.
“Where we only had four candidates in 2019, now we have seven. We are ready, we are here and we will get the job done.”
“I’m a proud Rathdowney woman and a proud Laois woman,” said Helen Campion “and I’m driven because I can no longer accept Laois being the poor relation.
“The status quo must end and a new era be brought in. The lethargic, stunted system has been in place for too long … now is the time to let new blood into the decision-making process.
“If we have to step on toes, so be it. If we have to upset the happy apple cart, so be it. Change requires bravery.”
“The worst thing that can happen is for you to fall short by a few votes and to say ‘if only I’d to do a few more nights canvassing’,” advised Brian Stanley.
“I know each one of you are capable of it,” said Director of Elections Andrew Kelly, Aaron’s father, in his parting words.
“You can do it one door, one street, one town and one towns land at a time.”
Throughout the evening, the various speeches were decorated with the cúpla focail and they finished by turning to face the tri colour.
Needless to say there was a technical malfunction. “It’s not connected to the Bluetooth,” said someone. “I tell you what we’ll do with that yoke,” said Helen Campion. “Turn it off.”
And with that, she led Amhrain na bhFiann.
The ball is in and the game is on.
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