Sinn Féin in bid to win two seats in Dublin Central

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has confirmed her re-election bid and has drafted in North Inner City councillor Janice Boylan as her running mate.

McDonald will be leading the party into the upcoming general election from her base of Dublin Central.

McDonald topped the poll in 2020 with 35.7% of first preferences, just below Bertie Ahern’s all-time record of 36.8% in the 2007 general election. 

No party has won two seats in Dublin Central since Fianna Fáil’s haul in 2007 when Bertie Ahern’s running mate Cyprian Brady won a seat.

McDonald herself was first elected in the 2011 general election, with her and Paschal Donohoe being the only two TDs to have consistently represented Dublin Central since then.

With McDonald making it clear she wants to follow in Ahern’s footsteps of being the Taoiseach from Dublin Central, she has brought in councillor Janice Boylan as a running mate.

She said she was “delighted” to be joined on the ticket by Boylan, saying “as a TD, Janice would be relentless in fighting your corner in the Dáil.”

Boylan was recently re-elected to her third term on Dublin City Council in the competitive constituency of North Inner City.

The seven-seater, which was the subject of an RTÉ documentary which aired in July, saw Fine Gael’s Ray McAdam top the poll.

Dublin Central is one of the most sprawling constituencies in Dublin, taking in Broombridge, Cabra, Phibsborugh, Grangegorman, Stoneybatter and Drumcondra on the west side of the constituency and stretching all the way down to East Wall and the Dublin Docklands.

The constituency has more than its fair share of star power, with McDonald and Donohoe joined by Social Democrats education spokesperson Gary Gannon and prominent Green TD Neasa Hourigan as the TDs for Dublin Central.

All four TDs that were elected in 2020 are running again alongside Fianna Fáil Senator Mary Fitzpatrick making her fifth bid for a Dáil seat and Labour Senator Marie Sherlock looking to win Labour’s first seat in the constituency since 2011, 

Despite calls to increase it to five seats in last year’s Dáil constituency redraws, Dublin Central remained on four seats with the neighbouring Dublin West being bumped up to five seats instead.