Three Clare candidates confirmed for European elections in Ireland South
Election takes place on Friday, June 7
TWENTY-THREE candidates are to contest the election for the European Parliament in Ireland South next month.
Limerick and the rest of Ireland will go to the polls to elect members to the Brussels and Strasbourg chambers on Friday, June 7.
This Tuesday, April 30 marked the deadline for election hopefuls to declare their intention to run.
Following this, it's now confirmed electors in Clare and around the Ireland South constituency will select from a list of 23.
The constituency covers a vast part of Ireland. It comprises of all the Munster counties, plus Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow.
Five seats are up for grabs, with four of the outgoing MEPs seeking re-election.
They are Fianna Fail's Billy Kelleher, former GAA president Sean Kelly of Fine Gael, Mick Wallace of Independents 4 Change and Grace O'Sullivan of the Green Party.
MEP Deirdre Clune, of Fine Gael, is stepping down from politics.
Eddie Punch, the general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association will seek election for Independent Ireland. He is based in Cratloe.
Michael McNamara, an Independent TD for Clare, based in Scariff is also running, along with Michael Leahy of the Irish Freedom Party, an architect and planner from Corofin.
Like the local elections and Limerick's maiden mayoral contest, the European election will be conducted using the Proportional Representation-Single Transferable Vote method, which means voters will be asked to list candidates in order of preference.
This process will see candidates whittled down to five, with the count taking place in Cork.
There are two other European constituencies in Ireland, both four-seaters - Midlands-North East and Dublin.
European Election candidates for Ireland South (in alphabetical order)
Note: MEP denotes outgoing member
Derek Blighe - Ireland First
Ross Lahive - The Irish People
Una McGurk - Non-Party
Prof Niamh Hourigan - Labour
Patrick Murphy - Aontu
Graham de Barra - Non-Party
Michael Leahy - Irish Freedom Party
Senator Paul Gavan - Sinn Fein
Kathleen Funchion - Sinn Fein
John Mullins - Fine Gael
Susan Doyle - Social Democrats
Billy Kelleher MEP - Fianna Fail
Cynthia Ni Mhurcu - Fianna Fail
Christopher Doyle - Non-Party
Grace O’Sullivan MEP - Green Party
Sean Kelly MEP - Fine Gael
Michael McNamara - Non-Party
Mary Fitzgibbon - Non-Party
Cian Prendiville - People Before Profit-Solidarity
Mick Wallace MEP - Independents 4 Change
Lorna Bogue - An Rabharta Glas
Eddie Punch - Independent Ireland
Ciaran O’Riordan - Non-Party