I’M mad about Holly – our relationship is strong enough to deal with us both being election candidates.

Those were the words of county mayor and FF general election candidate Christopher O’Sullivan, who is running against his girlfriend and Social Democrat candidate Holly Cairns.

When Christopher was added to the FF ticket last week, in a move he admitted surprised him, Holly said: ‘I feel like I’m in a badly-written rom-com.’

Speaking to The Southern Star since, Christopher said the couple, who went public on their relationship at the end of the summer, were somewhat prepared for this happening.

‘We have a great relationship and I’m absolutely mad about her. She’ll make a fantastic candidate and I know that first hand. We get on well but we differ politically and I wish her the best of luck.’

Holly earlier admitted that the county mayor hadn’t given her a chance for the local elections, but she proved him wrong, by scraping in, albeit by one vote.

The Fianna Fáil candidate said he was really grateful at being added to the ticket to run with sitting TD Margaret Murphy O’Mahony who he described as a ‘great friend’ and a ‘great candidate’.

And he said the party wouldn’t have decided to run two candidates if they didn’t think there was a chance they’d win two seats.

He also admitted the move may lead to a vote split but said he was confident they would come up with a plan that would work, with advice from party HQ.

‘I’m ready to grab the bull by the horns,’ he said.

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