SF may force reluctant Lynn Boylan to stand to seize women’s vote
By-election battle warms up as party mulls over candidates
SINN FÉIN is faced with a dilemma over whether to run the party’s former MEP Lynn Boylan in the hotly contested by-election in Dublin Bay South.
The high-profile senator has emerged as an internal favourite to be chosen as the candidate, although the party it still split on the matter.
As it stands, the contest within Sinn Féin appears to be a straight head-to-dead between Ms Boylan and Fintan Warfield, a second-term Sinn Féin senator.
However, Senator Boylan is believed to be reluctant to move into Dublin Bay South, while the party has also not ruled out blooding a young first-time candidate as an eventual successor to its current local TD Chris Andrews.
Should the party opt for caution, the most likely candidate is its sole councillor in Dublin Bay South, Daniel Céitinn, who was parachuted into the council in 2020 to replace Mr Andrews after he regained his seat. The young councillor is seen very much as being a ‘protege’ of Mr Andrews and is believed to be ‘actively considering’ putting his name forward.
Ms Boylan, the partner of the influential Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin, was being groomed for Dublin South West, where the party secured 20,077 votes just short of two quotas. In contrast Mr Andrews secured just 6,361 votes and only took the seat on the final count.
The Sinn Féin candidate will be selected at a constituency convention, although no date has yet been confirmed for this to take place.
One constituency figure told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘At the best of times the Sinn Féin seat is marginal. We certainly don’t ever anticipate vote managing for two Sinn Féin seats unless the surge turns into a tsunami.’
However, other sources indicated that party leader Mary Lou McDonald ‘wants a result’, and that Ms Boylan ‘may not be given the choice’. One source said: ‘It’s a question of striking while the iron is hot. This is a test of how real the Sinn Féin surge is.
‘We are playing away from home here, so any result in the first three would be influential.’
One senior constituency observer noted that Fine Gael – which has selected Councillor James Geoghegan as its candidate – will fight tooth and nail to ensure it does not lose the seat vacated by former housing minister Eoghan Murphy.
They told the MoS: ‘This is Blueshirt country… Defeat would cast serious doubts on Leo’s [Varadkar] leadership.’
A Sinn Féin source told the MoS that the party’s main motivation in the by-election with be to ‘tamp down any Labour revival… Sinn Féin’s want to keep Labour in its
‘At best the Sinn Féin seat is marginal’
current box, or casket, if you like. The last thing we need is Labour threatening our rear’. Another source warned: ‘Sinn Féin would prefer that Fine Gael would win the seat than Labour. It is, after all, a Fine Gael seat to lose.’
One senior constituency observer described the battle for Dublin Bay South as ‘a presidential-style race crossed with a referendum on housing’. The race will likely feature a strong female contingent, despite ex-Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell ruling herself out of running in her old constituency.
Labour will nominate Ivana Bacik tomorrow while Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu is seeking Green Party’s nomination as is Councillor Claire Byrne.