Carlow-Kilkenny emerging as key General Election battleground
The Carlow-Kilkenny constituency is gearing up to be one of the key battlegrounds that will decide the next government.
The Coalition’s bumper giveaway Budget – and the decision to bring forward the Finance Bill by a week – has reignited speculation Taoiseach Simon Harris will go to the country early.
And pressure from Mr Harris’s Fine Gael backbcnchers for an early election escalated after an Ireland Thinks poll published in the Sunday Independent showed the party’s support levels at 26% – seven points ahead of its coalition rival Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, who are both on 19%.
Carlow-Kilkenny has already been identified by strategists from across the political divide as one of the most intriguing constituencies in the country.
Sinn Féin poll topper Kathleen Funchion (below) has already departed for Europe following her recent election as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Ireland South.
Two party candidates, Bagnelstown-based Áine Gladney Knox and Natasha Newsome, who failed to get elected as a councillor in the Piltown electoral area, will now be vying for Ms Funchion’s seat.
Fine Gael is fielding no fewer than three candidates; Catherine Callaghan, Michael Doyle and David Fitzgerald, who will slug it out to retain the party’s sole seat held by departing TD John Paul Phelan.
Unlike their relatively inexperienced Fine Gael rivals, sitting Fianna Fáil TDs John McGuinness and Carlow-based Jennifer Murnane O’Connor are in a strong position to hang onto the party’s two seats in the constituency.
Other declared Carlow-Kilkenny candidates include Green Party Minister of State Malcolm Noonan, who relied heavily on Sinn Féin transfers in 2020, Sean Ó hArgáin (Labour), Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats), Orla Donohoe (Irish Freedom Party) and Tom Healy (Independent).
