GE2020: The challengers looking to claim a seat in Meath East

Gavan Becton

Published: Wed 29 Jan 2020, 5:41 PM

Last updated: Wed 29 Jan 2020, 5:43 PM

Meath East's three sitting TD can expect some very strong challengers in this election, in particular from Sinn Féin's Darren O'Rourke and Independent candidate, Sharon Keogan.
Sharon Keogan won seats in both the Laytown Bettystown and Ashbourne Municipal District in last year's local elections, giving her a strong starting base for next week's vote.
She also has the backing of many of the county's independents, including Cllr Nick Killian, Gillian Toole and Brian Fitzgerald, whose supporters are in the Meath East constituency, which should give her a significant boost.
Cllr Keogan was elected to Meath Co Council for the Laytown-Bettystown Municipal District in 2014 and five years later made history when she became the first woman elected to two council seats in a local election. She took up the seat she won in the Laytown Bettystown area and nominated Amanda Smith for the casual vacancy that resulted in the Ashbourne area. Her strong stance against drugs which resulted in a recent attack on her offices in Duleek will earn her a lot of support.

Sinn Féin’s Cllr Darren O’Rourke, has always been considered a strong contender and the current swing towards Sinn Féin will certainly work in his favour. He lives in Ashbourne but is originally from Kells, so will have strong bases at both ends of the constituency.
Cllr O'Rourke ran unsuccessfully in the 2013 by-election before being elected to Meath Co Council in 2014.
He has degrees in Biomedical Science and has worked as a medical scientist in the past. He is a former policy advisor to Sinn Féin health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.

Deirdre Geraghty Smith, Fianna Fail’s hope of taking a second seat in Meath East, believes “all politics is local” and aims to keep it that way if elected as opposed to any self-seeking ambitions.
“We have to accept that we effectively are used as suburbs of Dublin without the transport services necessary for such,” the 33-year-old Dunboyne native said this week. “A continuation of the rail link to Navan has been talked about for years but has gone nowhere and the number of carriages on the Dunboyne-Dublin link has in fact been reduced.”
She said new carriages for the rail commute had been ordered only in October last and would not be delivered for another two years. Houses, hundreds of them, had been planned or were being built without the infra-structure necesary being first put in place or updated. Dunshaughlin needed a town by-pass. Ashbourne, with a population of about 15,000 had only recently got a community park and none existed in Ratoath or Dunboyne.
Ms Geraghty Smith is also critical of the bizarre proposal in the county development plan to move the town centre of Ratoath out towards Fairyhouse.
The election hopeful lives in Ratoath and is married to Gordon Geraghty, the former Skryne footballer from Tara.

Aontú's Cllr Emer Tóibín is an untested candidate in this constituency. Sister of party leader and founder, Peadar Tóibín, Cllr Tóibín first secured a seat for Meath County Council in last year’s local elections.
She has pointed out that "there is strong appetite for change and a demand for a fairer, more accountable, and more far-reaching political vision that has been on offer in public office for many decades."

A strong community activist she is a longstanding member of ongoing local campaigns, most notably ‘Save Navan Hospital’ and ‘Meath on Track’,
The Labour Party has a long history of Meath TDs including the late Jimmy Tully, Frank McLoughlin and Dominic Hannigan. Cllr Annie Hoey will be hoping to see a return of the party's fortunes in Meath East. She was elected to Meath Co Council in 2019 on her first electoral outing and will be hoping to build on the sizeable vote she enjoyed last May. Ms Hoey is a former president of the Union of Students of Ireland.
The dark horses in every constituency in the country are the Green Party candidates - we can expect a major swing towards the party in light of recent environmental debate, from voters both old and young.

Cllr Emer Toibin (Aontu), Cllr Sharon Keogan (Ind), Cllr Deirdre Geraghty Smith (FF), Cllr Darren O'Rourke (SF), Sean McCabe (GP) and Cllr Annie Hoey (Lab)

Their East Meath candidate Sean McCabe is something of an unknown coming into this contest.
A scientist, he is prioritising climate justice and says that unaffordable rents, long commutes, homelessness, low paid and precarious work, inadequate public transport and expensive public services are local symptoms of the same ideology that is driving the climate and environmental crisis.

Cllr Joe Bonner has always had strong support in the Ashbourne area in particular. He has never had any interest in party politics and has never been involved in any of the council voting pacts which decided the election of catharoirleach of the council.
He led a campaign by Ashbourne and District Community Council (ADCC) for community facilities and when the county council let them down over a promised community facility, he stood as an election candidate, causing shockwaves in the political establishment when two sitting Ashbourne based councilors lost their seats in 2004.

Andrew Keegan (S-PBP) and Joe Bonner (Ind).

Cllr Bonner's support has been growing since then and he has been re-elected at every local election since.
Also joining the fray are Solidarity/People Before Profits, Andrew Keegan, in his first electoral outing in Meath East as well as The Worker's Party's Seamus McDonagh, a veteran campaigner over many decades, who has been steadily building a base in Meath having been prominent in the water charges, housing, Repeal the Eight and Equal Marriage campaigns.