Offaly - Local Elections 2009

[Effin Effer!!!]

Said I'd try this one considering the release of the Local Electoral Area Boundary Commission Report.

Birr Area, 4 seats - Cllr. Peter Ormond a shoe in here, only question is who's running with him and in Birr Town? No-one obvious to me! Will they run Cllr. Michael Loughnane Jnr. T.C. with Willie Loughnane of Coolderry as a sweeper? Strong Independent Councillor's in Birr are proving a thorn in our side.

Ferbane Area, 4 seats - Now has three sitting councillors, Cllr's. Eamon Dooley, Tom Feighery and Sinead Moylan-Ryan. Realistically we can only take two seats with two strong sitting Fine Gael councillors in the area. Who looses out?

Edenderry Area, 6 seats - This area should prove interesting. Personal opinion, Cllr's. Noel Bourke and Ger Killally to hold their seats along with Fine Gael Cllr's. John Foran and Michael Fox (new to area). Cllr. Eddie Fitzpatrick (F.G./P.D./Ind./???) to hold on in Portarlington Town. Newcomer Stephen Mather to take the last seat in the Bracknagh, Clonbullogue, Walsh Island and Portarlington rural area, seems to be a fairly hard worker on the ground going by what I've heard. Talk is that Edenderry Town Councillors Finian O'Neill, Noel Cribben and John Quinlan are all looking to get on the ticket up there. But can Edenderry Town support a second Fianna Fail councillor? Or am I completely wrong about all this?

Also where does John Foley fit in now? He has to take a Council seat if he realistically wants to run for the Dail again, even though he said before the General Election that he wasn't interested in running for the Council, time for an auld U-turn I think. But I hear theres alot of disquite in the Cumann's in North Offaly over the way he conducted himself during and after the General Election. Word around here is that Cowen wasn't happy with the Seanad carry-on!

Tullamore Area, 7 seats - Also interesting but less controversial. Cllr. Barry Cowen is safe in our area for obvious reasons!!! But can Cllr. Danny Owens hold on with his two base areas of Killoughy and Geashill transfered to Ferbane and Edenderry respectively? I think he can if he does a good canvass. Big question is can we take a third seat in the area, notably Tullamore Town? Maybe Cllr's Sinead Dooley or Paddy Rowland of Tullamore U.D.C. could be in with a shot here?

Would love to hear your opinions on any or all of this! What do the non-Fianna Failer's think?

[The Beara Rose]

No one cares or knows apparently!

[Darren Mac an Phríora]

I'm interesed. Could you break down your predictions Effin Effer in terms of how many seats you see the parties getting though?

[seranka]

Is Ger Killally running again? I thought he was focusing on his business now rather than his political "career".

[Effin Effer!!!]

Well realistically Fianna Fail can only take two seats in Ferbane, Fine Gael will get the other two. (2 F.F./2 F.G.)

Peter Ormond is a dead cert in the Birr area, if we run a good team of candidates we should be in with a shout for a second seat. Personally I think that's achievable. The two remaining seats are a toss up between Fine Gael and Independents who in my opinion won't do as well this time around so if Fine Gael do their business right they could be in with a good shot for those. (2 F.F./ 1 F.G./ 1 Ind.)

In theory we should be able to take four seats out of seven in Tullamore with the boundary changes. There was serious in-fighting in our area last time around, with a little help from Cowen and head office good candidate selection could prevail. Reality - probably three seats! (3 F.F./ 3 F.G./ 1 Ind.)

Edenderry will be able to return three seats for Fianna Fail, John Foran (F.G.) or Eddie Fitzpatrick (F.G./P.D./Ind./???) could be weaker than alot of people think. So if we run the right people in the right areas we could pick up a fourth, but thats a long shot. (3 F.F./ 2 F.G./ 1 Ind.)

(10 F.F./ 8 F.G./ 3 Ind. = 21) 10 seat to 11 seat minority on council for Fianna Fail. Fitzpatrick reportedly looking to join us but told by H.Q. to go and get elected first. Would give us a 1 seat majority if we don't manage to take an extra seat in either Tullamore or Edenderry.

Any thoughts?

P.S. - Ger Killally is running again, made his money during the boom and is practically retired, so loads of time for the council. Plus I don't think he'll step aside for John Foley, bitter rivalry there which seems to be getting worse.