From Bunclody to Brussels for Rory?

February 1984

Wexford County Councillor Rory Murphy has declared his desire to run in the next European Elections and will make his first major bid for a Fianna Fáil nomination at a seminar in Wexford on Sunday.

The Bunclody farmer and businessman will be one of the nine prominent party men seeking a nomination for the Leinster constituency to address the seminar in the Talbot Hotel.

He is confident of widespread support in Co. Wexford, but his opponents for the nomination include many party personalities who are well known at national level.

They are former Ministers, Pádraig Faulkner, Paddy Power, and Jim Gibbons; European Parliament Vice-President, Paddy Lalor; as well as Jim Fitzsimons TD (Meath), Ciarán Murphy (Wicklow), Sean Keegan (Longford/Westmeath), and Eamonn Meade (Kilkenny).

Fianna Fáil are expected to nominate two candidates in Leinster, but pressure is expected from Wexford to increase the number to three, to boost Mr Murphy’s chances of selection.