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DAVID MCGUINNESS, THE two-time failed Fianna Fáil by-election candidate, has said he’s considering running as an independent in the general election.
The Fingal county councillor said he has been receiving the overwhelming message on his social media accounts and from those he has spoken to both inside and outside the party to “cut loose” and run as an independent in the constituency of the late Brian Lenihan.
McGuinness was speaking in the wake of his failure to win the Fianna Fail nomination to run in the general election in Dublin West after he was beaten by fellow councillor Jack Chambers in a controversial selection convention last month.
“I’ve been speaking to the membership of the party and speaking to a lot of local people and taking their advice. When I wasn’t selected the post on Facebook had over 900 interactions and they were overwhelmingly saying to cut loose,” he told TheJournal.ie
McGuinness said he intends to make a decision before the party’s Ard Fheis in the RDS on 24 and 25 April.
He said he was not convinced that Fianna Fáil’s electoral strategy will produce a seat in Dubin West.
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The Blanchardstown-based councillor pointed out that he got 10,000 votes in the 2011 by-election to replace Lenihan and nearly 10,000 in the by-election to replace Patrick Nulty, who resigned last year.
When I was on my trajectory to being a TD in Dublin West I was blinded to the problems in Fianna Fáil. I’ve spoken to former government ministers, sitting TDs and councillors and it’s actually scary what they’re saying.
“The party is on the same percentage as it was back at the last general election. I had a discussion with Willie O’Dea today [on Today with Seán O'Rourke] and he said the party will have a full platform ahead of next general election.
“If a lady from my area gets on a bus, having to pay €3.30 to get into town and she can’t afford it, she can’t live off waiting for a Fianna Fáil solution. I am being ruthlessly honest about the situation.”
McGuinness said that Fianna Fáil colleagues across Dublin and outside the capital share his views privately, but said that he is “the one who has the balls to say it”.
Council colleagues of mine from around the city have been in touch and further afield. A lot of them feel that I am talking about the vast majority of what they feel.
Asked if he and other candidates who do not get selected by the party to run in the general election could form a breakaway Fianna Fáil group of candidates, McGuinness said “there is talk of it”.
However, he declined to say what specifically was being discussed or who is involved in such talks.
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So the bollards were removed in Nov 2023 by some amadan.
Reported in January by a concerned resident, and the council couldn’t complete the complicated task of replacing the bollards, mitigating the risk at the dangerous junction 4 months after reporting , 6 months after it occurred.
@Terry Molloy: Drivers see the bollards and should take heed and slow down for cyclists or pedestrians but in this case some headcase removed them resulting needlessly in a young womans death
@Jimmy Wallace: If those bollards were in place then the vehicle would have had to strike them – possibly causing damage to the vehicle – to also collide with the cyclist.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: If they are like the ones I’m thinking of, they are flexible when hit and spring back upright afterwards causing no damage to any vehicle. They unfortunately can be screwed out of the ground easily and this used to happen in my local area where young lads would be messing with them at night. They are better than nothing, but no substitute for proper segregated off road cycle lanes which actually protect cyclists and encourage cycling in any countries which have them.
@Terry Molloy: Sad reality is that some drivers are more concerned to avoid scraping their paintwork off a fixed object than to avoid a cyclist. Studies show them slowing down more for bollards than pedestrians/ cyclists
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