Beaufort man added to ticket for Fianna Fáil in local elections

BEAUFORT man Ken O’Sullivan will run for Fianna Fáil in the Kenmare Local Electoral Area in this summer’s local elections, he has told The Kerryman.

The estate agent, a father of three, steps into the breach following the surprise withdrawal last month of successful two-time candidate John Francis Flynn. Fianna Fáil is expected to formally announce his candidacy soon.

Mr O’Sullivan told The Kerryman that he was initially reluctant to put his name in the ballot after he was approached by the party, but he feels those who voted for Mr Flynn five years ago deserve the option of voting for a successor, and he decided it was an opportunity he would not pass up.

“I’ve canvassed with many candidates in local and general elections before, but never put myself forward like this, and this came about following the late withdrawal of John,” the part-time cattle farmer said.

“The party were anxious to have someone stand, and when you think about it, 1,400 people were good enough to vote for him the last time, and they at least deserve having the choice again.

“It was brought to me by the party a short time after he withdrew, maybe a few days after, and it wasn’t something I’d thought about because his announcement came out of the blue. I had a chat with my wife, and I shelved the idea because I’m running my own business and we’ve a young family, and we felt someone else might come along.

“We came back to the idea after a week and a half or so, and we decided this type of opportunity mightn’t come around that often, and people needed to have a candidate there having voted for a Fianna Fáil candidate again.”

Mr O’Sullivan was involved with Beaufort GAA as a player and manager, and he was on the management team when the mid-Kerry club won the All-Ireland Junior Championship in 2019. He has been involved with

Fossa in more recent years and was part of the management team when the East Kerry outfit won the same title in 2023. He was also on the management ticket when Mid Kerry won the County Championship in 2008.

He is a county-board delegate for Beaufort and secretary at

Fitzgerald Stadium, and he is a member of a local defibrillator group.

He said he is passionate about the kind of small-scale projects that make a huge difference to their localities but, as an estate agent, he is particularly interested in finding solutions to the ongoing housing crisis.

“In my business, you see the problems with housing every day of the week,” he said. “It’s a nightmare for people, particularly people trying to rent, and it’s something I never thought I’d see in my business, that people would be in such a dire situation.

“Something has to happen, short term and long term, to ease this problem. I never thought I’d experience a situation where people are unable to secure places, and that’s why homeless numbers are growing.”

He said the growing number of road deaths in Ireland – and, indeed, Kerry – is also of grave concern to him, and he is passionate about improving Kerry’s roads to boost road safety.