Election 2024Constituency Profile

Dublin Central constituency profile: Clare Daly’s entry into the race will squeeze all candidates on the left

Election 2024: If the far right are to make a breakthrough to the Dáil, it could be here

Dublin Central Constituency map
Election 2024: For Fine Gael, Paschal Donohoe will not have a running mate and will be expected to hold on comfortably in Dublin Central
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Pat Leahy
Thu Nov 07 2024 - 12:05

Outgoing TDs: Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Paschal Donohoe (FG), Neasa Hourigan (GP), Gary Gannon (SD)

Who are the candidates running in the Dublin Central constituency? Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Deputy Paschal Donohoe (FG), Deputy Neasa Hourigan (GP), Deputy Gary Gannon (Social Democrats), Senator Mary Fitzpatrick (FFl), Senator Marie Sherlock (Lab), Cllr Janice Boylan (SF), Cllr Malachy Steenson (Ind), Ian Smyth (Aon)

A constituency full of big beasts might see another. Amid a welter of colourful candidacy rumours, none sparked more discussion than the suggestion that Gerry “the Monk” Hutch might run here as an independent.

That suggestion seemed to recede with the arrest in Spain of the Dublin gangland figure – acquitted of murder in the Special Criminal Court last year – as part of a money-laundering investigation.

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Shortly before the election was called, the former Dublin MEP Clare Daly announced she would fight for a seat here. Daly’s entry to the race will squeeze all the candidates on the left here. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald would once have been expected to bring in a running mate, having received almost two quotas on her own the last time. But the party’s recent troubles, combined with the cratering of its vote in the local elections, make the success of second candidate Janice Boylan much less likely.

Clare Daly throws a cat among the pigeons in Dublin Central

Listen | 43:46

For Fine Gael, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe will not have a running mate and will be expected to hold on comfortably. The remaining two incumbents, Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats and Neasa Hourigan of the Green Party, will face challenges from Fianna Fail’s Mary Fitzpatrick and Labour Senator Marie Sherlock as well as from Daly.

Last time Gannon proved more transfer-friendly to the votes of smaller left-wing candidates, which allowed him to edge out Fitzpatrick. But Sherlock and Daly will be stiff competition. Like many Green candidates, Hourigan will be up against it, but the Greens were not wiped out here in the locals.

An unknown quantity will be the anti-immigration campaigner and local solicitor Malachy Steenson, who will also run as an independent. Closely identified with anti-asylum seeker protests in the constituency, Steenson was elected to Dublin City Council in May for the North Inner City. If the far right are to make a breakthrough to the Dáil, it could be here.

Possible outcome: Fine Gael (1), Sinn Féin (1), Green Party (1), Independent (1)