Both Seán Kelly and Heather Humphreys are to seek the Fine Gael nomination for November’s presidential election. Party leader Simon Harris has said Fine Gael will have its new candidate in place by mid-September.
It will have to. If the election is run like 2011 and 2018, we can expect the Presidential Election Order to be signed by Minister James Browne in the next fortnight, with nominations opening a couple of days later.
Both Kelly and Humphreys are steeped in rural Ireland. Kelly first came to national prominence as the president of the GAA, before entering politics. He has been elected to the European Parliament on four occasions since 2009.
Humphreys became a county councillor in Monaghan in 2003, when she was co-opted instead of TD Seymour Crawford. Crawford had been an IFA regional vice-president, a position Humphrey’s brother Bert Stewart later held.
MEP Seán Kelly doing the rounds at Tullow show. \ Donal O' Leary
Elected a TD in 2011, she was a cabinet minister from 2014 until her retirement last year, most recently holding the rural and community development portfolio. Both are from farms. Humphreys is married to a farmer, Eric.
Kelly is starting as the outsider, with Humphreys quickly gaining support within the Fine Gael parliamentary party. That said, the Kerryman has a ferocious work rate, and is popular among the grassroots. It promises to be a keen contest.
Kelly’s fellow MEP Billy Kelleher wants his party to get on the pitch with a candidate, something they haven’t done since Mary McAleese’s first election back in 1997.
Sinn Féin is considering its prospects, and seems likely to field someone.
Catherine Connolly, supported by a broad left-wing alliance, is the only declared candidate with the necessary support to gain a nomination.
Of course, all this activity was precipitated by last Thursday’s announcement that Mairead McGuinness was withdrawing her candidacy due to health concerns. The news came as a double shock.
There was widespread disappointment that someone seen as equipped with the necessary gravitas and charisma to represent all that Ireland is in 2025 on the world stage was no longer a candidate.
That disappointment extended well beyond Fine Gael members, across rural Ireland, where Mairead has been a trusted voice as a journalist, television presenter, MEP and EU Commissioner across a career spanning four decades.
Mairead McGuinness, former EU Commissioner and MEP, guest speaker at the Lisavaird Co-Op Centenary Celebrations.
There was also genuine concern for Mairead, and the hope that her health issue is both manageable and at the lower end of the scale.
The Dealer is about the only one left who was writing in these pages when Mairead began her career as a journalist in this parish.
On behalf of everyone in the Irish Farmers Journal< /I>, I would like to extend Mairead, her husband Tom and all her family our very best wishes.
Both Seán Kelly and Heather Humphreys are to seek the Fine Gael nomination for November’s presidential election. Party leader Simon Harris has said Fine Gael will have its new candidate in place by mid-September.
It will have to. If the election is run like 2011 and 2018, we can expect the Presidential Election Order to be signed by Minister James Browne in the next fortnight, with nominations opening a couple of days later.
Both Kelly and Humphreys are steeped in rural Ireland. Kelly first came to national prominence as the president of the GAA, before entering politics. He has been elected to the European Parliament on four occasions since 2009.
Humphreys became a county councillor in Monaghan in 2003, when she was co-opted instead of TD Seymour Crawford. Crawford had been an IFA regional vice-president, a position Humphrey’s brother Bert Stewart later held.
MEP Seán Kelly doing the rounds at Tullow show. \ Donal O' Leary
Elected a TD in 2011, she was a cabinet minister from 2014 until her retirement last year, most recently holding the rural and community development portfolio. Both are from farms. Humphreys is married to a farmer, Eric.
Kelly is starting as the outsider, with Humphreys quickly gaining support within the Fine Gael parliamentary party. That said, the Kerryman has a ferocious work rate, and is popular among the grassroots. It promises to be a keen contest.
Kelly’s fellow MEP Billy Kelleher wants his party to get on the pitch with a candidate, something they haven’t done since Mary McAleese’s first election back in 1997.
Sinn Féin is considering its prospects, and seems likely to field someone.
Catherine Connolly, supported by a broad left-wing alliance, is the only declared candidate with the necessary support to gain a nomination.
Of course, all this activity was precipitated by last Thursday’s announcement that Mairead McGuinness was withdrawing her candidacy due to health concerns. The news came as a double shock.
There was widespread disappointment that someone seen as equipped with the necessary gravitas and charisma to represent all that Ireland is in 2025 on the world stage was no longer a candidate.
That disappointment extended well beyond Fine Gael members, across rural Ireland, where Mairead has been a trusted voice as a journalist, television presenter, MEP and EU Commissioner across a career spanning four decades.
Mairead McGuinness, former EU Commissioner and MEP, guest speaker at the Lisavaird Co-Op Centenary Celebrations.
There was also genuine concern for Mairead, and the hope that her health issue is both manageable and at the lower end of the scale.
The Dealer is about the only one left who was writing in these pages when Mairead began her career as a journalist in this parish.
On behalf of everyone in the Irish Farmers Journal< /I>, I would like to extend Mairead, her husband Tom and all her family our very best wishes.
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