Irish Labour leader puts Mairia Cahill forward for Seanad byelection

Labour haven’t lost any time in trying to fill Jimmy Hart’s lately vacated seat in the upper house in Dublin. Mairia Cahill is the surprise proposal from the party’s leadership. The rest of the party has to ratify her candidacy, although given they awarded her their Jim Larkin Prize earlier in the year that looks like a formality. Joan Burton why she’s been nominated: Cutting indecently to the realpolitik of it all, Cahill be hard for the other parties in …

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And then there were just two candidates left standing for the Seanad byelection…

So John McNulty has gone. That just leaves Sinn Fein’s Lurgan based candidate Cat Seeley and independent candidate Gerald Craughwell, … That McNulty sure seems qualified. Board member of IMMA…impressive. pic.twitter.com/vdMNVr8hkU — Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) September 29, 2014 He cannot by law withdraw from his official candidacy but he’s indicated that people should not vote for him [eek, that’s bit messy – Ed]… That leaves a lot of FGers with a bit of a problem. The Seanad was getting unruly enough …

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Seanad Debacle: Enda, Heather and John face the pressing need to “stop digging”…

What’s most remarkable about the Seanad controversy is how it reveals the ineptness of the Taoiseach’s handling of what started as a crisis at the sleepy end of the Oireachtas. But the Seanad has been like a body risen since Enda slung it rather carelessly onto death row back in October 2009. The man at the centre of the controversy was, as many from other parties before him, Kilcar man John McNulty, was supposed to get a run in as …

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