It was a bitterly disappointing election campaign for Sinn Féin as the party failed to add to their two seats in Laois County Council.
They did manage to hold on to their two seats, at least, with Caroline Dwane Stanley re-elected to the Portlaoise Municipal District on the 3rd count.
In the aftermath, Cllr Stanley sat down with LaoisToday to discuss her successful campaign.
“It’s great, I’m delighted,” she said. “I was here last night till nearly half one; I think it was two o’clock by the time I got home after dropping home some of my supporters that were here with me.
“I’m just relieved, absolutely. It’s been a long campaign, and a good campaign on my behalf, I have to say.
“My vote has increased, I’ve actually taken the highest vote that I’ve ever had since I was elected to Laois County Council ten years ago. I got 1,415 (first preferences), which is the highest vote I got. So I’m delighted with my campaign.
“I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me along the way: my family, the Cumann members, supporters, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and everyone that got behind me; and more importantly, those who voted for me. I don’t take them for granted.
“I have worked very hard on the ground and I would have a good track-record of working at local level, and I think that stood to me and my colleague, Aidan Mullins.
“I was in the shouting – I knew I was alright, but I wouldn’t have thought that my vote was anything like what it turned out to be.
“It’s great when you know that you’ve gotten the high vote, that you can kind of relax and take a deep breath, and sit back and try take in some of the atmosphere.”
There was no escaping Sinn Féin’s poor performance in the elections across Ireland, and Cllr Dwane Stanley offered her analysis, beginning with the Laois results.
“Five years ago, the party lost half its seats right around the country, and we really got the squeeze then. So, it’s kind of hard to see that we’re back in the same space, kind of, again.
“We put up seven brilliant candidates in the county – strong candidates – and it just wasn’t their day.
“I want to acknowledge my two running mates: Maria McCormack – a great candidate who really put herself out there and worked very hard; and Jason Phelan as well.
“It’s the first time we ran three candidates in the Portlaoise Abbeyleix Municipal District, and I don’t regret that. While it wasn’t our day, I think we put a marker down that we shouldn’t rest on our laurels now, that it’s there for everybody else bar Sinn Féin.
“We’ll come back again. Five years ago we lost five seats and within six months, the party topped the polls in the General Election.
“For some reason or another, that Sinn Féin vote didn’t come out for the new candidates. But it’s very hard to try and break through where you have strong, sitting candidates.”
Cllr Dwane Stanley also gave a mention to Aaron Kelly, who ran for Sinn Féin in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District, and was the party’s top-performing candidate who missed out on election.
“A brilliant candidate, absolutely brilliant,” she said. “And really, really put in the work and he got a great vote.
“I think we’ll see Aaron back in five years time; I don’t think we’ve seen the end of him yet.”
Speaking in broader terms, Cllr Dwane Stanley addressed the sate of Sinn Féin across Ireland and how it can recover from this surprise result.
“The party has to go back to basics and get a look at what went wrong. There’s several different issues that people would put their finger on.
“There’s a few different factors. The referendum didn’t do the party any good recently, when they took the position to call for two yes votes.
“The other thing is, we had a terrible nastiness that was boiling up for the last couple of months, in terms of migration and that.
“But on a good note, what I would say is: that nasty element of right-wingism didn’t succeed either – they’re not elected and I’m delighted with that.
“Because that would have been dreadful for the country as a whole. We saw candidate all around the country being assaulted, being abused – there’s no place for that in society.
“Posters interfered with from all candidates, I’ve never seen as much of that before; it was the first time I’d ever seen it at that scale.
“And I’m glad that the people didn’t come out and endorse that and vote for that.
“We have to take a look at our house, and I’ve no doubt that the party will do that. I think the party just has to take a good look at what’s gone wrong, the message wasn’t gotten out there, it wasn’t clear.
“It wasn’t a good day for the party, and we have to acknowledge that. We can’t dress that up.”
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 Local Election coverage here
