Jim Gavin, candidate in the 2025 Irish presidential election with Dara Calleary, Minister for Rural & Community Development & the Gaeltacht, climbing an eight-metre climbing tower, at the 2025 National Ploughing Championships, Screggan, Tullamore Photo by Kenneth O Halloran
Presidential hopefuls to lobby local councillors
Presidential hopefuls will have their chance to lobby councillors of South Dublin for their nomination this Friday afternoon.
South Dublin County Council will hold an informal assembly on Friday, September 19, for potential candidates seeking the Council’s nomination for the Presidential Election to present their pitches.
Each candidate will be allowed five minutes to speak, with ten minutes allocated after for questions from councillors.
A special meeting of the full council will be held then at 6pm on Friday, to formally resolve to nominate one candidate, or not to nominate any candidate at all.
So far nine prospective candidates are set to address SDCC: businessman Nick Delahunty, campaigner Professor Dolores Cahill, maths lecturer Dr Cora Stack, Donegal businessman Keith McGrory, Professor Doctor Joseph Chikelue Obi, who is hoping to be Ireland’s first black president, Charlotte Keenan, a Westmeath farmer, Ian Doyle, Tony Corrigan and Lucy Anne O’Leary.
So far, the only candidate to secure any nominations from local councils is Dublin businessman Garth Sheridan, who has been nominated by Kerry and Tipperary County Councils.
At their special meeting held on Monday, September 15, Dublin City Council voted not to nominate any candidate for the presidential race, after what one Fine Gael councillor called “the most bizarre meeting I have ever attended in my time as a councillor”.
Monday’s meeting ended with a round of applause, during which one of the seven prospective candidates had to be warned not to violate the code of conduct multiple times.
Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose summed the evening up with his comments to the media: “Dragon’s Den has a lot to answer for”.
Clondalkin native and Fianna Fáil candidate Jim Gavin also launched his first campaign video on Monday, highlighting his Clare roots and looking to appeal to a wider rural base beyond his connections to Dublin GAA.
“My roots are firmly in rural society and my role during the campaign is to get out there to listen to the issues that the farming community, the rural community have, and to express them if I get the opportunity to be president and advocate for them,” he said.
The campaign video, shot on his uncle’s farm in Kildare, has raised some eyebrows, as it opens with Mr Gavin walking through (and failing to properly secure) a farm gate, while wearing a pair of white trousers.
One sceptical viewer posted on X:”I thought he was going to get on a horse and do some dressage for us, Farmers and white trousers.”
Another comment read: “Boom! you just lost the farmer’s vote…close the gate youngfella.”
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
