Is the ‘age of Independents’ coming to an end in the Nenagh LEA?

An interesting insight to take away from this year's Local Elections, is that the only Independent candidates running for election were those that were already councillors. Every other person in the running was a member of a political party.

Does this spell an end to the Independent majority in the Nenagh LEA?

On the back of his win, Cllr Seamus Morris announced that he plans to retire after this term and with Cllr Hannigan and Cllr Michael O’Meara having spent three and four terms on the council following this coming term, retirement from the council could also be in sight for them.

Nothing is guaranteed of course as politicians are known for retiring later in life so there may be many years left for the two independents but if not, future councils might see a spectrum of political parties.

One of this year’s retiring councillors Ger Darcy was the only Government party member of the previous council in Nenagh but his would-be Fine Gael successor Eleanor Maher failed to achieve a seat this time around.

This would seem to suggest that party loyalty might not play a significant role in the elections and that much in line with the idea of an ‘Independent’ candidate, people seem to vote for the person rather than the party in Nenagh LEA.

The other side to that is that the candidates running this time around may have felt more secure with the backing of a political party. For example, Cllr Louise Morgan Walsh was significantly aided in her campaign by Alan Kelly TD and Cllr Ryan O’Meara had Fianna Fáil’s Jackie Cahill TD to rely on which may have made their running easier.

Conversely, in the lead up to the election Damian O’Donoghue was very highly spoken of around Nenagh, independent of his party association, and it does not seem like the Sinn Fein branding did him any favours in the polling stations. So, in his case being an Independent candidate may have been more suited to his particular campaign.

Either way, if this year’s elections are anything to go by, the future of Nenagh LEA seems like it could see an array of political backgrounds as its representation.

The next General Election will be pivotal in providing further insight into the minds of Tipperary vote.