Gráinne Seoige among candidates seeking to contest general election for Fianna Fáil

TV broadcaster Gráinne Seoige will be one of five candidates seeking a nomination to contest the general election for Fianna Fáil in Galway West, at the selection convention for the constituency on Friday night.
Ms Seoige confirmed last month she was putting her name forward to the convention.
The other candidates are Connemara-based Darragh Ó Tuairisg, who narrowly failed to win a seat in the council elections in June and three city candidates: Senator Ollie Crowe; Cllr John Connolly; and Cllr Alan Cheevers.
Ms Seoige is the second “celebrity” candidate to be connected with Fianna Fáil’s general election campaign. The party announced that former TV news anchor, Alison Comyn, will stand in Co Louth alongside Senator Erin McGrehan.
Fianna Fáil is also holding a convention in Mayo on Friday evening where outgoing TD and Minister of State Dara Calleary and Senator Lisa Chambers will be nominated. Ms Chambers lost her Dáil seat in 2020 but with the constituency having increased to five seats the party will target a gain here.
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Earlier this week, the party selected former Lord Mayor of Dublin Tom Brabazon as its candidate in the five-seat constituency of Dublin Bay North. Its sitting Fianna Fáil TD Seán Haughey announced earlier this year that he will be retiring at the time of the next election. Mr Brabazon has been a councillor since 2003.
The Fine Gael convention for Galway East on Saturday evening is expected to be closely contested. The outgoing Deputy for Fine Gael, Ciarán Cannon, said earlier this year he would not be seeking re-election.
Six nominees in all will be seeking one or two nominations. The front-runner is expected to be Cllr Peter Roche from Abbeyknockmoy, who got almost 6,000 first preferences in the 2020 election. The other candidates are Kabir Ahmmed; Galway city councillor Clodagh Higgins: Siobhán Lawless, Niamh Madden; and Shane Dolphin.
As of Friday Fine Gael has 41 candidates chosen in 27 constituencies and is expected to complete its slate of candidates by the end of the month.
At a convention on Thursday night, Senator John McGahon and Cllr Paula Butterly were to represent the party in Louth. On the same night, veteran Fine Gael politician Willie Aird (64) was selected for Laois. He has been a councillor for 45 years, having been first elected in 1979.
Senator Mary Seery-Kearney was also chosen by Fine Gael for Dublin South Central on Thursday.