The publication today of preliminary reports from the 2011 census provide some interesting statistics for county Donegal
The figure show for instance that the county’s population in 2011 stands at 160,927 – showing an increase of 13,663 or 9.3% on the 2006 census figure of 147,264.
Of that figure 80,411 are male, compared to 80,516 females.
Since 2006 the key changes in population in Donegal show 6,441 more males, 7,222 more females in the county as a whole.
One of the big questions after the numbers are crunched will focus on whether or not the county will continue to have six TDs when electoral reform measures are put in place.
One of the country’s top analysts Adrian Kavanagh, a lecturer in the Geography Department at NUI Maynooth has already tweeted that Donegal NE and SW are both too small now to remain as 3-seaters, but too large to become separate 5-seater, could be tricky
No doubt the number crunchers will be hard at work over the next few days on what this means for the country, and indeed perhaps for individual counties.
In the meantime I have included some of the key figures pertaining to Co Donegal in the tables below and all the figures can be found on www.cso.ie
In many cases the best chance an independent election candidate has of ever taking a seat in a general election is when they have a cause to crusade for that people felt passionately about - something the people in Donegal South West saw not too long ago when Tom Gildea upset the applecart to take what had been a Fianna Fáil seat.
Of course there have been independents elected who were not seen as single issue candidates, but more often than not these have been seasoned politicians, and quite often former members of one political party or another.
This election in Donegal sees no less than five independent candidates in the field in Donegal North East, while three have entered the race in the South West.
But what of their chances?
Well, if the polls and the tipsters are to go by, only one of the eight – Thomas Pringle in Donegal South West – stands any outside hope of taking a seat.
Interestingly enough, as a long serving county councillor he is also only one of two of the eight independent candidates with any track record in politics – the other being councillor Ian McGarvey in Donegal North East, possibly the election’s oldest candidate at 81.
A recent poll in the Tir Concaill Tribune newspaper suggested that in Donegal North East however only health candidate Betty Holmes would poll any significant number of votes.
And in health, she certainly has a cause to crusade with in Donegal. However, despite her association with Donegal Action for Cancer Care, her campaign is a personal one and therefore is not likely to gather the kind of momentum she’d need to cause an upset.
Had she thrown her hat into the ring in advance of the last general election however, things might well have been different. At that time the issue of cancer care in particular seemed to be much higher on the agenda and a huge protest march in Letterkenny when upwards of 10,000 people took to the streets was still fresh in the memory.
On that point it was interesting to hear the comments made at the weekend by local haulier John McLaughlin, when he suggested he might have won a seat in this election had he decided to stand.
His comments came after he’d witnessed huge support for a protest in Letterkenny on Saturday against the rising cost of fuel – something he says has been driving people out of business across the country.
Mr. McLaughlin takes his protest to Dublin this week and is gathering momentum and support across the North West for the day of protest that will cause traffic chaos in the capital.
His message, he said yesterday, is to let the government know – the outgoing one and the incoming one – that ordinary people cannot afford to pay any more.
Judging by the level of support at his rally in Letterkenny at the weekend, it’s a message that he has managed to send out loud and clear which is why those in the race for seats in Donegal are probably glad that he left it too late to throw his hat in the ring this time.
Here's Mr McLaughlin's interview after the rally on Saturday, courtesy of Wallace Media.
Any fears that there would not be a Blaney name on the ballot paper in Donegal North East for the first time in over 80 years were put to rest today when Dara Blaney handed in nomination papers and declared his intention to seek election in the constituency as an independent candidate.
A member of the new Vision Alliance, Dublin-based Mr. Blaney is the son of the late Neil T Blaney and his inclusion on the ballot paper does not comes a complete surprise with countless rumours over the past week that one of Neil T’s sons might well run.
With the Green party candidates also declared in both constituencies, Dessie Larkin confirming he will not stand and a number of independents indicating their intention to run in both Donegal North-East and Donegal South West, the number of declared candidates in the county now is as follows:
Former Donegal footballer John Duffywho has been confirmed as the Green Party candidate for Donegal South West has said that Donegal has huge potential for job creation by harnassing the county’s potential for renewable energy.
John Duffy Donegal SW Green party candidate
Duffy who played for Donegal’s GAA senior side for seven years is now a solar panel installer.
Donegal NE Green party candidate Humphrey Murphy
The Green Party will also have a candidate in Donegal North East with Humphrey Murphy – a business consultant and part-time lecturer at LYIT – confirmed as the Green Party candidate in the constituency.
For the first time ever in Ireland the influence of new social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are being analysed in relation to a General Election campaign and while having a presence online will be no substitute for knocking on doors, it is interesting to see how – and if – Donegal candidates are paying attention to their online presence.
Thanks to the brilliant work on the site – candidate.ie – there are some statistics available already in relation to the Donegal candidates and their presence or otherwise on Twitter and Facebook- but these are likely to change.
For instance in Donegal North East, independent candidate Betty Holmes is on both Facebook and Twitter, but her presence in the field has gone under the radar for the candidate.ie site as yet and, as such does not appear although I've no doubt it will soon.
Fianna Fail’s Charlie McConalogue and Fine Gael’s John Ryan are not listed either, but like Betty Holmes they too have a presence on Facebook.
Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty is among the most popular candidates in the country in terms of his Facebook friends numbers and is certainly way ahead of the rest of the Donegal candidates.
What it all means though is open to all kinds of debate. For instance Facebook friends is no indication of the number of votes a candidate might secure – after all the friends could be anywhere and not necessarily inside the boundaries of the constituency.
And what about Twitter? Certainly less popular in Ireland at present than Facebook, it is growing rapidly in popularity.
Not many of the local candidates are on Twitter for instance, although it was interesting to see a number of Tweets from Labour’s Jimmy Harte today on his campaign updates.
I’m hoping over the next few days to have a more in-depth look at the online presence of our various candidates and doing a more in-depth piece.
In the meantime have a look at this link for brilliant video post from the cutbacks2010 videos which would seem to indicate that not all prospective TDs think the internet is the way to go!
On the day when the 30th Dáil was finally dissolved and the election day set for February 25th there were plenty of goings on in both Donegal constituencies, but once again Donegal North-East was where the bulk of the action was taking place.
The day started of course with the fall-out of last weekend’s Fianna Fáil convention still hanging in the air, but it was widely expected that, by evening, Letterkenny-based councillor Dessie Larkin would be added to the ticket.
That, it would seem, is still the expectation, but it will be tomorrow now before it is confirmed and councillor Larkin was dismissing suggestions today that the party had approached a non-elected person to possibly run as a second candidate.
Second candidates seemed to the main theme of the day with Fine Gael also in the news regarding a second candidate in Donegal North-East.
Joe McHugh had already been selected as the party’s sole candidate in Donegal North East, but Inishowen party members were keen to have John Ryan added to the ticket and according to Donegaldaily.com tonight he has now been selected as a second Fine Gael candidate in Donegal North East.
If that is the case (if you can find confirmation of it on Fine Gael’s horrendous new website then great for you) then Inishowen will be one hell of a battlefield for the coming election with Padraig McLochlainn, Charlie McConalogue, Ryan Stewart and John Ryan all slugging it out for votes there.
Throw into the mix independent candidate Betty Holmes from Newtown on the fringe of the peninsula but in the Inishowen electoral area and the fate of the three North East seats could well lie in how the votes in Inishowen go.
In the South West meanwhile the Green Party have indicated that they will run a candidate again although there has been no indication yet as to who that person might be.
The storm clouds hanging over the Labour Party are probably still lingering with the Donegal on Sunday reporting at the weekend that some members had stormed out of their ‘clear the air’ meeting last week, but in public at least things seem to have calmed down.
Of course the gloves really don’t come off until the race gets under way in earnest – and that has happened now we have a date for the contest and the Dáil is dissolved.
The race is well and truly on – but expect a few twists and turns yet before the six Donegal winners get past the post.
