Independents make Dáil bid in Dublin West

Two prominent independents have launched Dáil bids in Dublin West.

Independent poll-topper Tania Doyle has announced her Dáil bid, while former Sinn Féin councillor Natalie Tracey has announced she will also be running as an independent.

Independent councillor Doyle topped the poll in Ongar in June’s local elections while Tracey left her seat in Castleknock, which she held between 2014 and 2024, to run in Cabra-Glasnevin.

Tracey was part of Sinn Féin’s ill-fated bid to get four candidates elected in Cabra-Glasnevin, the backyard of party leader Mary Lou McDonald.

While Doyle was elected on the first count in Ongar with just over 24% of first preferences, Tracey didn’t fare nearly as well in Cabra-Glasnevin, receiving 2.5% of first preferences.

Tracey performed the worst of Sinn Féin’s four candidates in the constituency, with their most successful candidate, councillor Seamus McGrattan, being elected with 6.26% of first preferences.

Doyle (independent) was first co-opted onto Fingal County Council in 2015 as a member of the Anti-Austerity Alliance while Tracey was first elected in the 2014 local elections for Sinn Féin.

While on the campaign trail for June’s local elections, Doyle and her husband were the subject of an attack by an anti-immigrant protestor, which left her husband hospitalised.

In an interview with The Journal, Doyle recalled that she “feared for her life” during the attack.

Senator Emer Currie of Fine Gael,  Fianna Fáil duo Jack Chambers and Lorna Nolan, 2020’s Sinn Féin poll-topper Paul Donnelly and running mate Breda Hanaphy, former Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, National Party councillor Patrick Quinlan, Green party leader Roderic O’Gorman, Labour councillor John Walsh, Aontú councillor Ellen Troy and Social Democrats candidate Ellen Murphy are also on the ballot with other various independents in the running.

In recent weeks, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced he will not be seeking re-election in Dublin West.

The addition of two more independents into the race brings the total number of candidates in Dublin West to 13, meaning that the ballot for the general election will exceed the dozen candidates that appeared on the ballot in 2020.

Dublin West was upgraded to a five-seater following constituency redraws in 2023.