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THE 2011General Election proved to be a great leveller, even for former poll toppers.James Breen shocked the political establishment when he headed the poll with an impressive 9,721 first preferences in 2002. Five years later, he lost his seat by just 456 votes after a dramatic dogfight with eventual winner Joe Carey.Last Sunday night, the curtain came down on a possible return to the Dáil following a battle with 2007 poll topper, Deputy Timmy Dooley.Like a veteran boxer, Councillor Breen fought to the bitter end before he was forced to give way to the Fianna Fáil Deputy, who was elected in the twelfth count without reaching the quota.For a brief period before midnight, it looked as if a recount was on the cards when some of the votes for Councillor Breen and Deputy Pat Breen were mixed up. However, once this was rectified, the count resumed and the results of the eleventh count were announced about 20 minutes later.The killer …

FINE Gael got a huge vote in Clare but it still wasn’t good enough to get a coveted third seat. While Tony Mulcahy got 6,829 first preference votes, 40 more than Timmy Dooley who took a seat, he came up short and was eliminated after the tenth count.It was the Shannon man’s second general election campaign and while he must have been somewhat disappointed not to be making plans for life as a TD, he said he was pleased with how he polled.“I’ve doubled my vote and I’m thrilled with it. I had a super campaign team out there. All my family, everyone canvassed and I couldn’t have asked for a bigger effort. I only came into the race about seven weeks ago, basically out of the boot of a car. I don’t have a full time office operating sending out mail to people.”He didn’t feel that the Fine Gael vote was sufficient to win three seats, regardless of how …

INDEPENDENT General Election candidate, Brian Markham has said he has not been approached by a political party.The young West Clare man garnered in excess of 2,000 votes, more than 1,500 of them first preferences, and emerged as a credible future candidate for both local and national politics. He also indicated that he intended to run in the local elections. Since then, there had been some suggestions that he had been approached by at least one of the main political parties.“There has been no approach or anything like that, not even informally. For the minute I am an Independent,” Mr Markham told The Clare Champion.At Saturday’s count the first-time election candidate was adamant that he would remain non-party for future elections, saying he would “definitely go Independent”.By Wednesday he had softened his stance a little, growing more like a politician by the day.“I would be willing to listen to anyone who wanted to talk to me. I don’t know what the …

They’ve been the most bitter of political rivals since the 1920s but Fine Gael’s director of elections in Clare, Edmond Jennings, believes Civil War politics is dying a death and the day of a new order in Irish politics is dawning.“I think you are getting to the point where the difference between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, their origins and the Civil War is being eliminated by the younger people. That generation want to look forward rather than back and I believe you could see both parties in government in two elections’ time,” he suggested.For the party’s political diehards, that may be unpalatable but Mr Jennings believes Irish politics is heading in that direction and there is a major realignment.“The country is maturing as a democracy and the factors which dictated how people voted in past are dying away. People are becoming more interested in policies and values and as well as that they are starting to vote for parties …

Surveying the political wreckage that is Fianna Fáil, Clare constituency organiser Michael Neylon believes that if the party is to resurrect itself from the ashes it needs to “rebuild and restructure”.While its Clare vote plummeted by 20.2% from 42.3% in 2007 to an all-time low of 22.1%, Mr Neylon warned that Fianna Fáil “is going nowhere without change” and that the party hierarchy has to reconnect with the grassroots membership.“What this election has told us is that the political landscape is changing. Historically, Clare was a Fianna Fáil stronghold but I suppose it can no longer be considered Dev’s country.“In 2007, we were in contention for three seats, in this election we’d have to be happy with the one seat when you look at the national trend. The performance of the party nationwide wasn’t unexpected, it was a backlash to a poor performance in government,” he acknowledged.Mr Neylon felt that the pummelling in the polls was justified, given the state …

It is rare that a group of political die-hards would almost take pleasure in the government’s botched attempt to introduce electronic voting.While former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey was subjected to scathing criticism over his failed attempt to roll out electronic voting at a staggering cost of €50 million, a cross-party group of political analysts the length of the country breathed a collective sigh of relief.You see, tallymen are a breed apart. From the minute the 179 boxes were opened in the West County Hotel, Ennis, on Saturday, the sense of anticipation and excitement was palpable.The first unofficial indication of a dramatic change in Clare’s political landscape was provided by 30 Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael stalwarts who diligently recorded the first-preference votes for all the 16 candidates in a joint tally.A new seat for Labour in Clare for the first time since 1992, the dramatic collapse in Fianna Fáil’s overall share of the votes, leaving them with a battle to …

THE extent of the dramatic collapse in the Fianna Fáil vote in Clare from 44% to 22% wasn’t fully reflected on the doorsteps, according to local Comhairle Dáil Ceanntair secretary, Gerry Reidy.While local party activists expected a significant swing against the party based on national polls, Mr Reidy said a lot of constituents did not vent their anger or engage with canvassers at the door.However, he also pointed out that Fianna Fáil’s share of the vote was one of the highest in the country, much higher than some Dublin constituencies, where it slumped to as low as 10%.Regardless of which Fianna Fáil candidates were offered to the local electorate, he felt people wanted a change and a new government.Defending the two-candidate strategy, he described Dr John Hillery as a very credible candidate, who managed to secure a sizeable vote, despite being a late entry into the campaign.He highlighted the need for reform within the party. “There needs to be a …

FOR MORE COVERAGE CLICK GENERAL ELECTION 2011 link THE political landscape of County Clare has completely changed following last week’s watershed General Election. The Labour Party stole the show with Michael McNamara comfortably taking the seat vacated by Fianna Fáil’s Tony Killeen, who retired from politics for health reasons.