View of the MidlandsEuro candidates and the

NATIONAL PARTY GREEN PARTY

Senator Pauline O’Reilly: The current Cathaoirleach of the party, she was first elected to Galway County Council in 2019. Pauline was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2020 General Election for Galway West and went on to contest the Seanad elections that followed where she was elected on the Labour panel. Currently she is the Green Party spokesperson on Education. The former family law solicitor stands for ‘Care, Sustainability and Education’. Rating 4/10

James Reynolds: The Longford farmer has a long tradition of supporting far right policies and has had many outings in the political sphere.

He stood in 2004 for Longford County Council elections and was defeated. Involved with the campaign of Declan Ganley in the 2009 European election he went on to found the National Party with Justin Barrett in 2016.

His next contest was in the 2020 Dail election for Longford/Westmeath again without success. James said: “All nationalists need to work together to offer the electorate a clear alternative which puts Irish interests first.”

He is the only full-time farmer in the contest. Rating 3/10

IRISH FREEDOM PARTY

Hermann Kelly:

Born in Derry,

Hermann is the president of his party which was founded in 2018 and is a journalist by profession.

The party stands for the reunification of Ireland and

Hermann believes Ireland would be best served in withdrawing from Europe and “taking back control of our laws, borders and budgets”.

A far-right politician, Hermann has worked as press officer in Brussels for Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party and is currently communications director for Cristian Teres, a Romanian MEP who carries a selfie stick. Rating 2/10

INDEPENDENT

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan MEP: Attempting to become a member of the European Parliament for the third successive time.

Luke was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2019 he is a former Mayor of Roscommon (2010) having been elected to the County Council in 2004 and again in 2009.

He served as TD for the constituency of Roscommon/South Leitrim following his election in 2011as a member of New Vision, an alliance of 20 independent candidates.

He has been steadfast in his support for radical social and environmental issues.

He supports the rights of people to cut turf and had a heated exchange with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Simon Coveney, on the issue in Dail Eireann in 2011. The Eurosceptic studied mechanical engineering at the then Sligo Regional Technical College. Rating 5/10

INDEPENDENT IRELAND

Ciaran Mullooly: The retired Midlands correspondent for RTE, where he spent twenty-seven of his 36 years as a journalist, Longford native Ciaran has entered the contest for Europe following a request from Michael Fitzmaurice one of the three TDs in the newly formed political party Independent Ireland.

Having travelled much of the constituency during his time with RTE he believes he knows the issues confronting the electorate and says, “the focus of Independent Ireland on local issues, tangible solutions to problems resonates with my own values and convictions”. Rating 8/10

This is the tenth time for direct elections to the European Parliament and to date we have fourteen candidates from nine political parties and 1 Independent. Fianna Fáil have had no MEP since 2014.

There has been an Independent elected each time since 1999 with 2 in 2014, Luke Flanagan and Marian Harkin.

Labour have not declared a candidate as of now but, have contested all previous elections, although none of the six male candidates saved their deposit or got expenses while the three female candidates, Ann Gallagher, Lorraine Higgins and Susan O’Keefe did.

There are nine of the Dáil constituencies represented in the contest. Parties have gone to great lengths to secure candidates that are familiar to the electorate it is like a contest of ‘I am a celebrity, get me into Europe’.

It will be a very close and hard fought election with ten candidates closely grouped and only a small number of votes separating each to determine the order of elimination, which will be crucial to the final outcome.

With just over 50 days left to polling the prediction is one seat each for Independent Ireland, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Aontú providing a huge challenge to the Independent but the independent luck may hold. It could well turn out that all five are first time MEPs.