Michael O'Kennedy TD says he has yet to decide whether to contest his North Tipperary seat at the next general election. His increasingly busy law practice and the fact that he put his Nenagh home up for sale led to local speculation that he would not run again. O'Kennedy told Quidnunc he was selling his house in Gortlandroe but was not leaving Nenagh. He will live in the old family home in Bank Place, which he currently uses as his constituency office.
"I was called to the Bar in 1961," he says, "and have been a Senior Counsel since 1973. I am the longest-serving Fianna Fail TD with David Andrews and Ben Briscoe." He is conscious, he added, that every time Fianna Fail wins a second seat in North Tipperary, the party goes into government. But he has also signalled that, for him, there may eventually be a life outside politics. In any case, O'Kennedy said, he will not decide one way or another before consulting the local constituency organisation and close friends.
Meanwhile, Sen Kathleen O'Meara, who unsuccessfully contested North Tipp for Labour, has pitched camp in the constituency. She is the natural inheritor of John Ryan's Labour power-base in Nenagh so she is targeting the other main urban centre, Thurles.