Third time lucky? Now former Kilkenny councillor to contest Wexford by-election

By COLIN BARTLEY

A FORMER Kilkenny councillor who also contested the local elections in Waterford will now contest the Wexford by-election for the seat left vacant by MEP Mick Wallace.

Melissa O’Neill was first elected to the Piltown Municipal District of Kilkenny County Council in 2014. In doing so she became the first Sinn Féin councillor elected to Kilkenny County Council. Less than two years later she was expelled from the party.

The former councillor from Ferrybank remained on in her seat as an Independent councillor.

In the local elections earlier this year she took the unprecedented step of trying to retain her Kilkenny seat, while at the same time running for a seat in the Waterford County Council elections in the Waterford City West district, which covers part of Ferrybank.

During that campaign, Ms O’Neill said she was not affiliated to any party, despite launching her campaign at an event attended by Irexit founder, the former journalist Hermann Kelly, now Director of Communications for the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) Group in the European Parliament, which has close links to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

Ms O’Neill is set to run on the The Irish Freedom Party Ticket for the Wexford by-election.

The vision of the Irish Freedom Party according to their website is: “Taking back control by the Irish People of our law-making, our citizenship, our currency, our trade policy, our borders and immigration policy, our taxation and budget policy, our sea-fisheries and marine resources, our human rights under the Irish Supreme Court, our foreign and security policy and maintaining a meaningful military neutrality.”