By Kate Heaney
JUST two of the 28 candidates running for the five European Parliament seats in the Midlands North west Constituency are from Donegal.
Senator Niall Blaney and former presidential candidate Peter Casey are among the large group seeking to take a seat in the EU parliament for the next five years.
Fianna Fáil’s Senator Blaney has been on the campaign trail now for months having secured his party’s nominations along with Barry Cowan TD and Senator Lisa Chambers.
Peter Casey is an Independent candidate, originally from Derry, the businessman and former Dragon’s Den panellist, stood in the 2018 presidential elections and failed to secure a seat in the last European Elections.
Nominations are now closed for the June 7 election and nationally 74 candidates are seeking to take the 14 Irish MEP seats.
The Midlands- North West constituency consists of 15 counties across Connacht, Ulster and most of Leinster.
Nine incumbent MEPs are running for re-election across the country including a number of sitting TDs and senators.
Candidates for the five Midlands North West seats include two from Fine Gael, sitting MEP Maria Walsh and well-known jockey hopeful Nina Carberry.
Fianna Fáil have three as named above while Sinn Féin have two candidates, sitting MEP Chris McManus and aspiring MEP Michelle Gildernew.
The nine Independent candidates include sitting MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan while Dr Gerry Walters, former journalist John Waters, Peter Casey, Saoirse McHugh, Michelle Smith, Stephen Garland, Daniel Pocock and Charlotte Keegan are looking to take a seat in Europe.
Aontú Party Leader Peader Tóibín is looking to broaden his remit to Europe.
The Green Party candidate is Pauline O’Reilly, People before Profit candidate is Brian O’Boyle and the Social Democrats nominee is Rory Hearne.
The National Party are fronting two candidates in this constituency, James Reynolds and Justin Barrett.
The Party for Animal Welfare candidate is Carolyn Fahy.
Former RTE correspondent Ciaran Mullooly is standing for Independent Ireland.
Anthony Cahill is standing for The Irish People Party, Herman Kelly is standing for the Irish Freedom Party, Margaret Alacoque Maguire is standing for Ireland First and Fergal Landy is standing for the Irish Labour Party.
With the largest list of candidates now declared in the Midlands North West Constituency, counting on the day(s) could take quite a while before final results are known.
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)