LUCINDA CREIGHTON WAS definitely the star of the show at the launch of Renua Ireland today, but the party also had a number of its members in attendance.
Renua has 180 people who want to run in the general election. Not all of them will with Creighton indicating that the party will field between 50 and 60 candidates at the next election.
We spoke to three of them to gauge why they wanted to get involved and what persuaded them to run for the country’s newest political party.
Mailo Power, a hotelier in Waterford, says the reason she got involved was because of the challenges that are facing family-run businesses like her own.
It’s a voice for those people who are actually struggling, the whole idea of cashflow and all that was a major challenge for us.
“I’ll be going forward as a candidate for the selection process in Waterford. None of us are confirmed candidates, we all have to go through the selection process, but I’ll be putting my name in the hat!”
Anne Farrell, from Roscommon, says she’s always been politically interested but resisted the urge to get “dragged into it” up until now.
She describes Creighton as a “very vibrant, young, steely, confident girl”.
On this occasion when Lucinda Creighton took the stand she did on the vote in Dáil Éireann, I respected her stance on the issue. She voted against her own party, one which she was, politically, moving upwards in. I found that her honesty and integrity appealed to me.
She said the Irish people are “crying out for honesty and integrity” and to be included in the process of government. For her it was a case of “do it now, or shut up”.
Farrell is the sister of Labour senator John Kelly. Michael D Higgins was one of her tutors in NUIG “back in the day” and she did canvass for Labour in Galway in the past.
But ultimately, she hopes to run for the party in Roscommon-Galway East.
Finally, we also spoke to Shane Dunphy, a social worker, commentator and journalist, who wants to run for the party in Wexford “if they’ll have me”.
One of the things that just struck me time and time again when I was a child protection worker was the fact that everybody who was working in the area was full of the best intentions in the world, wanting to do the best for their clients. But they were hamstrung by lack of finances, resources, social workers, and psychologists on the ground.
He said in Renua Ireland he has found people who are “absolutely committed to making real change”.
He says getting involved was an opportunity to implement “real, positive change”.
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