CONSTITUENCY PROFILE: BANTRY
THERE are four sitting councillors and seven new candidates seeking election in the four-seater Bantry electoral area, which is part of the West Cork Municipal District.
Two of the sitting councillors were co-opted, not elected, so this will be the first time that sitting councillors Cllr Caroline Cronin (FG) and Cllr Chris Heinhold (SD) will be seeking election.
Cllr Danny Collins was first co-opted as an Independent councillor in 2016 – after his brother Michael Collins took a seat in Dáil Eireann – and he was elected in 2019.
This time, he is expected to top the poll for his brother’s party Independent Ireland.
The early transfer of Danny’s second preference votes is expected to benefit Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy, who has three successful elections already under his belt.
Cllr Caroline Cronin (FG), who has built up a strong support base in the Bantry area since she was co-opted in March 2020, is also expected to be returned to Cork County Council.
She won the party’s selection convention but the party executive subsequently decided to add first time candidate Mary Lou Maguire Leahy to the ticket.
Although the party is confident of its vote management strategy in the Bantry area, the decision to stand two female candidates – Caroline who is from Ballydehob but living in Schull, and Mary Lou Maguire Leahy, who lives in Lisheen, near Skibbereen – so close to each other geographically, is risky because they could cancel each other out if their first preference votes are dissipated.
In Bantry, it is Cllr Chris Heinhold’s seat that is being targeted.
As a newcomer, Chris may not be strong enough to see off some of the stronger challengers on his doorstep, such as Independent candidate Finbarr Harrington, who famously lost out on a council seat by a single vote to Holly Cairns (SD) in 2019.
Finbarr Harrington was famously beaten to a Council seat by Holly Cairns last time around, and he’s back again for another bid. Top, right: Cllr Cronin was co-opted to her Council seat so now faces her first election, as does, right, Cllr Chris Heinhold. (Main photo: Anne Marie Cronin)
Aontú’s candidate in the Bantry area, Patrick Murphy – who straddles a home base from Ballydehob to Beara, where he is the chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation – will also be a force to be reckoned with.
Meanwhile, the farming community is likely to support Independent candidate Helen O’Sullivan, who lives in the Mealagh Valley.
Helen, who had helped to establish the Farmers’ Alliance, is now standing as a first-time Independent candidate.
The Green Party has put forward retired school teacher Liz Coakley Wakefield.
Liz previously served as a public representative for the Green Party in Brighton before returning to her mother’s homeplace in West Cork.
Fianna Fáil candidate Danny Crowley (FF), who is well known for his involvement in Bantry’s YouthReach, is seeking a return to Cork County Council, following previous election successes in 2004 and 2009.
But with Danny Crowley and Patrick Gerard Murphy both running for Fianna Fáil in Beara, Patrick Gerard’s first preferences could be reduced if they split the vote, leaving it a three-way battle for the fourth seat.
Sinn Fein have also selected Colum O’Callaghan, an engineer and a father-of-four, to stand in the Bantry area.
