Seriously under pressure Fine Gael will have to go back to the drawing board in a desperate effort to identify a suitable candidate for the next general election in the five-seat Kerry constituency.
The news that former Mayor of Listowel, Cllr Aoife Thornton, has decided not to contest the local elections in June has come as a total bombshell to the party who had considered the Lixnaw solicitor to be the best hope of retaining the seat being vacated by Deputy Brendan Griffon who is bowing out of active politics.
Senior party sources confirmed that a fully supported Dáil campaign was on offer for Cllr Thornton if she wanted it but she had previously indicated that she would take the necessary time to consider the matter and make a decision in due course.
She has now confirmed that her name will not even be on the local elections ballot this summer and the mother of three young children said she made the decision for family reasons.
A big vote winner, Cllr Thornton was first elected to Kerry County Council in 2014 and she retained her seat in very comfortable fashion in 2019, topping the poll with over 2,500 first preference votes.
With Deputy Brendan Griffin deciding not to content the next general election and with time slowly running out, the pressure is now mounting on Fine Gael strategists to find a suitable candidate.
KillarneyToday.com understands that the party made an approach to Ireland South MEP Sean Kelly (71) to consider a run for the Dáil but he insisted his whole focus is on being re-elected to the European Parliament to continue his work on behalf of the Irish people.
The name of former minister and Kerry TD, Jimmy Deenihan, is also being bandied about in recent days but whether he still has the appetite for a physically demanding Dáil campaign, also at the age of 71, remains unclear and he has several businesses and community commitments to tend to.
The decisions of former Dáil candidate Cllr Seamus Cosai Fitzgerald, Cllr Patrick O’Connor Scarteen and Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Jim Finucane, not to contest this year’s local elections adds a huge complication and, at this stage, only veteran Kerry County Council member Cllr Bobby O’Connell in Castleisland has expressed an interest in the next general election.
Brendan Griffin’s cousin, Tommy, has been mentioned as a possibility but much will depend on his performance in the local elections while Cllr Thornton’s colleagues in Listowel, Cllr Michael Foley and Cllr Mike Kennelly, are the only other elected member of the party in the county at present with Cllr Foley’s name being mentioned in dispatches.
In previous elections the party made approaches to high-profile celebrity candidates – understood to have included former Kerry footballers Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper – but neither was willing to play ball.
Fine Gael is also desperately seeking a candidate to contest the local elections in the Killarney Municipal District but several potential runners have ruled themselves out and former senior party officials in the area have said the once very strong local branch seems to have well and truly snapped.
The party is understood to have established a national committee to identify suitable candidates in several areas but, at this stage, its members will have their work cut out for them.
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