Three worthy contestants lost out in the Nenagh local elections

As with all elections, unfortunately they can’t all be winners.

This year, the Nenagh LEA was very fortunate to have a full slate of strong contenders vying for seats.

Two long-standing councillors had just retired which gave hope to the candidates trying for first-time election that there would be a decent shot at one of the newly vacant spaces.

However, the three councillors running for re-election have all been in the game for a number of terms now so their seats were difficult to dethrone.

Cllr Joe Hannigan and Cllr Michael O’Meara were basically certainties from the beginning as each has a loyal following in their local area and aside from each other went unopposed by any local threats.

Cllr Seamus Morris was also almost guaranteed a spot. Although, he had a more difficult time of it with so many competitors in his local area in Nenagh.

Despite no one ever truly being “safe” until elected, the competition was only really ever in getting the two recently vacant seats.

Sinn Féin’s Damian O’Donoghue was the closest to win a seat out of those that were unlucky and if Facebook likes were anything to go by one might have expected him to top the polls.

Damian’s efforts are giant when it comes to going out of his way to help the Nenagh community and he deserved a seat as much as anyone.

He was unfortunate this time around but with Cllr Morris retiring before the next election and the potential for others to follow suit, Damian would be very worthy of a seat if one were to become available.

Although Eleanor Maher and Iva Pocock didn’t shake the polls quite as hard, both made strong efforts to secure a seat.

This was Eleanor Maher’s first run at an election and has given her great experience in the process. If she were to choose to run again she might fare better next time with all she has now learned.

Iva saw a strong backing from her Cloughjordan community but unfortunately she was possibly not familiar enough to the people of Nenagh to make any serious headway.

Any of these three would have been a great addition, it is just unfortunate that there are limited seats available.