Aaron Kelly: ‘I’m happy with how I did. As a first-time candidate you’re always on the back-foot of sitting Councillors’

It was a bitterly disappointing election campaign for Sinn Féin as the party failed to add to their two seats in Laois County Council.

However, for one of their candidates in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District, the 2024 Local Elections represented a great personal success.

As the count drew to a close, Aaron Kelly spoke with LaoisToday about his experiences:

“I’m happy with how I did. As a first-time candidate you’re always on the back-foot of sitting Councillors,” he said.

“I decided to run two years ago, I started canvassing two years ago as soon as I decided to run, to get a bit of a profile.

“I really appreciate the people that did vote for me; and look, it won’t deter me; I’ll be going out again. I’ve really enjoyed it from day one.

“I gave it 100%. It is what it is. I’m not disappointed, really, because I know there’s nothing else I could’ve done.”

Mr Kelly was quick to point out the support and motivation he received from his loving family.

“Shannon and Ella have been brilliant,” he said. “There’s a lot of days and evenings gone with meetings and that, but they’re always there in the background supporting me.”

Looking at Sinn Féin in a broader context, Mr Kelly believes the party has some work to do in future elections.

“It was a bad day for the party,” he said. “The last time out, we didn’t run enough candidates in the General Election – this time out, it looks like there was too many.

“It’s like a game of football: you can have a brilliant team, you can have one bad day, and that’s the way I see it.”

When asked if he would be interested in running for election again, the first-time candidate responded positively:

“Yes, 100%,” he said. And I think the sooner we start planning the better for the next step. We need to build, we need to look at the strategy from a national point of view, but we also need to look at it from a local point of view as well.”

Mr Kelly was the strongest performing new candidate for Sinn Féin, but was quick to rain praise on his party colleagues.

“For me, it’s probably because of the area I was in,” he said. “The other candidates were so strong but it just didn’t happen for them on the day.

“Maria McCormack would’ve been a brilliant Councillor; unfortunately she just didn’t get the votes on the day. Helen, Lorna, Jason the same.”

The Graiguecullen native was well supported in his base, which he plans to use as a building block in the future.

“I was delighted with that,” he said of the home support. “I reckon, just from the tallies, maybe 400 out of the 750 (votes) were from Graigue.

“I know myself for the next time I’ll have to branch out a bit more, and focus on the areas outside of Graiguecullen.”

You can listen to the episode in full below:

SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 Local Election coverage here

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