Seanad by-election appeal by Catherine Seeley to TDs and senators to strengthen diversity in upper house

CATHERINE SEELEY, the Sinn Féin candidate in the Seanad by-election, says that electing her would strengthen and diversify the upper house. She is the only Northerner and the only woman running.

The poll has become a Fine Gael farce and a mushrooming row over cronyism that has led to Enda Kenny’s own candidate to withdraw and appeal for Oireachtas members not to vote for him.

There are three candidates on the ballot paper – Catherine Seeley for Sinn Féin, Gerard Craughwell (Independent), and John McNulty for Fine Gael.

Catherine is the first Sinn Féin Deputy Mayor of Craigavon, elected with the help of unionist votes.

The young teacher was reluctantly in the headlines earlier this year and prior to her election as Deputy Mayor after a campaign of intimidation by the hardline Protestant Coalition to force her out of her job at the Belfast Boys’ Model Secondary School in the unionist Ballysillan area of north Belfast.

Many of Catherine Seeley’s young students and their families showed infinitely more courage than unionist party leaders at the time. The teenagers defied the loyalist bully-boys by posting messages of support on Facebook. Despite the public support and that from teachers’ union INTO, Catherine decided not to return to the school to avoid further disruption of the education of the students she was so committed to.

“They were very brave and took great risks to speak out, for which I am so grateful,” Catherine told An Phoblacht, “but I had real concerns about their safety and I particularly didn’t want to be a constant distraction to their education at a vital time before their exams.”

Calling for the support of TDs and senators to be given to her, Catherine Seeley said:

“I am a councillor and committed community activist in Lurgan, County Armagh. I am teacher with a huge interest in education and the future of our young people across the island.

“Internationally-renowned artist Robert Ballagh has stated that this government’s record on the arts is the worst in the history of this state. I want to play a part in challenging that and in offering alternative vision for the arts in Ireland.

“I would hope that my election to this key political institution would allow me to bring my experiences to bear on national issues from my unique vantage point.

“I am the only Northerner and the only woman in this election.

“My election could help strengthen and diversify the Seanad – as a young woman, an educator and Irish citizen born and raised in the North.

“In the Seanad, I would hope to join the Sinn Féin team, bringing forward understanding and reconciliation and promoting our visions of a new republic.”

The furore over Fine Gael candidate John McNulty’s appointment to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art just before the election in an apparent move to boost his credentials has seen the failed Fine Gael local election candidate withdraw from the race but too late for his name to be taken off the ballot paper. 

Fine Gael now has a candidate trying to lose an election and Fine Gael and senior Labour figures in particular smarting over their early declarations of support for and faith in McNulty now having to be airbrushed.

The vote takes place by secret postal ballot. Votes have to be returned by noon on Friday and the result should be known by Friday afternoon