Putting yourself up for election, at any time and in any contest, is a brave thing to do.
While the general population can go for a job interview, it is largely their own business how they get on.
While the winners in elections get to experience the thrill, elation and subsequent celebrations, for the losers it is a very public loss.
But for many it takes more than one attempt to get the public’s backing.
Heading into these Local Elections, the current Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council, Paschal McEvoy (Fianna Fáil), is one of many who fell short initially before coming back to succeed. He’s not the only one in Laois County Council.
His Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District colleague Aidan Mullins (Sinn Féin) was also unsuccessful in 2009 at the same election before winning a seat for the first time five years later.
Fine Gael’s John King lost twice before breaking through in 2009 in the old Borris-in-Ossory area. Current Laois-Offaly Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley ran in the 2002 and 2007 General Elections before winning a Dáil seat in 2011 and retaining it in 2016 and 2020.
He was also unsuccessful at his first attempts to be elected to both Portlaoise Town Council and Laois County Council.
Famously, or infamously, it wasn’t until his fourth attempt that Charlie Haughey was elected a TD in 1957. In all he was elected 11 times from then until his retirement in 1992.
Some candidates do smash down the door at the first time of asking but for others it takes a while of knocking before it opens for them.
In this year’s Local Elections in Laois, there are no fewer than 10 candidates, who missed out previously, who are back for another shot.
They are from all over the county and across the complete political spectrum.
Eight of them were unsuccessful five years ago, one missed out in 2004 and 2009 and another was unsuccessful in 1999 but has returned to the ballot paper 25 years on.
Here we look at those who missed out on previous attempts and how they got on on those occasions.
Graiguecullen-Portarlington
Eoin Barry (Labour)
From the Crettyard area, Barry was a first-time candidate in 2019 and got 756 first preference votes to finish in seventh place, 139 behind the sixth-placed Aisling Moran (Fine Gael). Moran benefitted from Fine Gael candidates above and below her to eventually win the final seat ahead of Barry on the seventh count.
He has since contested a Seanad by-election for Labour and is back in the same Municipal District where there are 12 candidates challenging for the six seats.
Patsy Fennell (Independent Ireland)
The Timahoe man is making a political comeback, 25 years after contesting the Local Elections in 1999 – then as a Labour candidate.
On that occasion Fennell ran in the old Emo area, polling 130 first preference votes and was eliminated on the third count. Part of the newly-formed Independent Ireland party, which has three TDs in Richard O’Donoghue (Limerick), Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon) and Michael Collins (Cork) as well as a European Election candidate in former RTE correspondent Ciaran Mulloolly.
Vivienne Phelan (Fine Gael)
From Stradbally, Phelan got 542 first preferences in 2019 at her first attempt but was eighth of nine candidates and never in contention on that occasion.
Since then she has retained a strong presence in the party and challenged within Fine Gael to be co-opted to the council to fill the seat left vacant following the retirement of Tom Mulhall. That was filled by PJ Kelly – and the two are running mates now. Five years ago there were three Fine Gael candidates in the area but Aisling Moran, who was elected, has left the party since and is now an Independent.
Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick
Paddy Buggy (Fine Gael)
Buggy will be hoping this will be a case of third time lucky, having missed out on a seat in both 2009 and 2004.
In 2009 – then a Fine Gael candidate in the old Portlaoise area – he was involved in a marathon count, just missing out on the final seat of seven. He had initially got 435 first preferences, just eight votes behind party colleague, the late Kathleen O’Brien, who was elected on the 11th count alongside Catherine Fitzgerald (Fianna Fáil) and Rotimi Adebari (Independent). In 2004, he was in the old Mountmellick area, when he got 332 votes and was eliminated early.
Declan Good (Fianna Fáil)
Based in Clonaslee, Good is one of five Fianna Fáil candidates (compared to four in 2019) on this occasion in the Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick District.
Five years ago, he got 542 first preferences, which was the lowest of the Fianna Fáil candidates and he was eliminated on the third count. This time he secured the party nomination, ahead of 2019 running mate Liam O’Neill and takes his place on the ballot alongside colleagues Seamus McDonald (Rosenallis), Paddy Bracken (Mountmellick), Fintan Cuddy (Castletown) and Brian Phelan (Rathdowney).
Lorna Holohan-Garry (Sinn Féin)
Sinn Féin had a disappointing election in 2019 when their vote declined from five years previously. But Holohan-Garry still got 649 first preferences to be ninth of 14 candidates after the first count. That was too far off a quota and she was eliminated in the sixth count.
From Mountmellick, she is back again this time and has a running mate across the district in Rathdowney where Helen Campion is a first-time candidate. Initially Sinn Féin had three candidates in this area for this election but the Mountrath-based Julie Maguire later stepped aside.
Portlaoise
Dom Dunne (Independent)
Initially part of the Fianna Fáil party, where he sought to be co-opted in 2018 to fill the seat left vacant following the death of Jerry Lodge, Dunne ran for Renua in the 2019 Local Elections.
He was ninth of 16 candidates for seven seats in 2019, winning 379 first preferences and went all the way to the 14th count, overtaking Naeem Iqbal (Independent) but losing out to Thomasina Connell (Fine Gael) by 53 votes. Renua have since folded as a party but Dunne is now an Independent.
Pauline Flanagan (Independent)
Flanagan has also Fianna Fáil lineage and was a councillor for the party at the time of the 2019 Local Elections having successfully been chosen to be co-opted to Jerry Lodge’s old seat. Then under her maiden name of Madigan, she got 326 first preferences in 2019 and was 12th of 16 candidates after the first count. She was eliminated in the eighth count.
She was later a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 2020 General Election in Laois-Offaly where she got 1,744 votes and eliminated early on. She again sought the party nomination for these Local Elections but wasn’t selected and has since opted to run as an Independent.
Donal Kelly (Independent)
Another former Fianna Fáiler who contested the 2019 Local Elections in Portlaoise for the party and was later an Area Representative for FF.
In 2019 he got 331 first preferences to be 11th of 16 candidates and didn’t challenge for one of the seven seats. He was eventually eliminated in the 11th count. He opted to leave Fianna Fáil prior to last year’s selection process by the party, announcing early on that he’d be running as an Independent.
Naeem Iqbal (Fianna Fáil)
The Pakistani native is a new name in the Fianna Fáil party, having been recruited by the party to join prior to last year’s selection process.
An Independent candidate in 2019, he got 454 first preferences to be in seventh place after the initial count and leading the way for that final seat. He went to the 13th count where his votes helped get Fine Gael’s Thomasina Connell over the line ahead of Dom Dunne (Renua). Now he is one of three Fianna Fáil candidates in the Portlaoise District alongside sitting councillors Catherine Fitzgerald and John Joe Fennelly.
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