Dublin City Council did not nominate an independent candidate to appear on the ballot for October 24’s presidential election.
At a special meeting of the council on September 15, a motley crew of independent candidates went before the largest local government in the country, but to no avail.
In truth, independents face an uphill battle to appear on the ballot this year; after last year’s local elections, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael emerged as the biggest parties at a local level, and in the case of Dublin, the two government parties run the four Dublin councils, which essentially locked out independent candidates.
Coupled with Labour, Social Democrats and People Before Profit backing Catherine Connolly, it meant that independent candidates were making a doomed pitch from the start.
Former MMA fighter Conor McGregor was due to be among those to address the council, but announced earlier that day he would be withdrawing from the race entirely (with cynics pointing out he was never in the race to begin with).
McGregor’s brand of American-inspired conservatism was represented at the meeting by Sarah Louise Mulligan, who was famously escorted out of the building when she tried to secure the support of South Dublin County Council in 2018 after going on an anti-politician tirade to the very same people she was trying to secure support from.
Mulligan was reprimanded by Lord Mayor Ray McAdam for going on a tangent linking immigrants to crime levels, remarking at one stage, “Ireland needs to be saved.”
Mulligan declared she was dedicating her speech to the late American political commentator Charlie Kirk, and that she “stood with Elon Musk.”
Based on Mulligan’s rambling speech, it may have stood to Mulligan to actually brush up on what the President does on a day-to-day basis instead of regurgitating American talking points from Twitter.
Dublin woman Lorna McCormack addressed the council and arguably had the best grasp of what the role of the President is and what she would do with the limited powers the President has.
Fluent in Irish Sign Language, she stressed the importance of “bringing young and older people together to create meaningful connections,” saying that there are 150,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing people in Ireland, and stated “I believe that it is important that we include those voices.”
“They are the silent voices of Ireland, and I will, should I get nominated, include those voices here today,” noting that 5,000 people in Ireland use ISL as their main daily language.
That same day, Dublin businessman Gareth Sheridan received the backing of Kerry County Council and later went on to receive the backing of Tipperary County Council; the businessman was unable to address Dublin City Council.
Sheridan needed the backing of two more councils to appear on the ballot; on September 22, Sheridan ended his campaign after failing to secure the support of Meath and Offaly councillors.
Conservative candidate Maria Steen has had more success via the Oireachtas route, securing nearly the support of nearly 20 Oireachtas members needed to appear on the ballot.
She attempted to woo Dublin City Council, saying that receiving their backing would add “legitimacy” to her campaign.
Steen told the councillors, “you have a really important constitutional privilege”, and said there would be “no true independent voice” on the ballot if she wasn’t nominated.
Steen, the niece of 2018 candidate Joan Freeman, has received the backing of Aontú’s two TDs as well as a smattering of notable independents, but is short of the 20 Oireachtas members needed to appear on the ballot.
Steen told the meeting that some people want to “punish” her for her Catholic beliefs, implying that there is a strong Catholic voter base in Ireland that has been left alienated following the 2015 and 2018 referendums on marriage equality and abortion.
Dublin man Nick Delehanty, who ran in last year’s local and general elections, addressed councillors in Galway on Monday instead of attending the meeting in Dublin, telling the Galwegians that despite not winning a council or Dáil seat last year, he did manage to outpoll former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell in the Dublin Bay South constituency last November.
The trivia fact wasn’t enough to impress the councillors on the west coast, and his path to securing a nomination is looking narrower by the day.
The results of the 2024 local elections are crucial in understanding why independent candidates are having such a hard time appearing on the ballot this year.
The 2014 local elections saw a massive surge of support for independents (which foreshadowed the strong performance of independents at the 2016 general election) with independents emerging as the biggest force on Tipperary, Waterford, and Galway City Council.
Independents did not perform nearly as well in the 2024 local elections; in 2014, 192 independent councillors won seats out of a possible 949, the 2024 locals saw a dip to 178 nationwide.
The other crucial factor was that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did not run a candidate in the 2018 presidential election, which meant they had relatively free rein to choose who they pleased; in 2025, both parties are running candidates and councillors were under strict orders not to back an independent while the left-wing opposition parties (barring Sinn Féin, at time of going to print), have already backed a candidate and would be unlikely to break ranks and vote for an independent.
2018’s runner-up, Peter Casey, has also ended his presidential aspirations, meaning that his second-place finish in 2018 will make him the Vanilla Ice of Irish electoral history, a pub quiz question at best.
In a statement on Thursday, Senator Gerard Craughwell said, “for independent presidential candidates, council nominations are often the only viable path to the ballot. When party machines instruct councillors to block nominations – as Fine Gael has reportedly done – they are not just playing politics. They are actively suppressing democratic choice.
“This is not representation, it is restriction,” he said.
With the election set for October 24, it appears that voters will have fewer than five candidates to pick from on that particular Friday.
The Electoral Commission is said to be delighted with savings on printing costs.