FOUR Fianna Fáil candidates have been selected for convention to see who will be co-opted onto Clare County Council and fill a vacant seat in the Ennis Municipal District.

This follows the departure earlier this year of former Ennis Municipal District councillor Mark Nestor who announced he was leaving politics to join the priesthood.

The Ennis Fianna Fáil Comhairle Ceantair have confirmed that Bernard Hanrahan, Amanda Major, Darragh McAllister and Tom O’Callaghan will be vying to fill the open seat on the local authority.
The convention to determine who will take the place of Nestor is set to take place later this month.

Clarecastle’s Bernard Hanrahan is no stranger to the chambers of Clare County Council and is a staunch member of the Fianna Fáil party having served as a councillor in the Ennis area for a decade from 1999 to 2009.

Amanda Major, who is originally from Nigeria, has lived in Clare for 18 years becoming an Irish citizen in 2015. She unsuccessfully ran for election to the Ennis Municipal District as an Independent candidate in 2019, gaining 200 first preference votes.

This was the same election which saw first-time candidate Nestor elected to become Clare’s youngest councillor.

Ennis publican Darragh McAllister is a former chair of the Clare branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland and last year he was elected president of business representative group Ennis Chamber.

In 2004 he tried for a seat on the Ennis Town Council as a Fianna Fáil candidate and received 407 first preference votes.

Clarecastle-based postmaster Tom O’Callaghan who works as a post master in Limerick City is the chairman of the Independent Postmasters’ Group.

The Ennis Fianna Fáil Comhairle Ceantair has stated they are “delighted” to have seen such an interest in the upcoming convention for the vacancy in the Ennis Municipal District.

The candidates will now be contacting voting members of the party to canvass them for their support ahead of the convention.