Constituency: Cork North-West

Ellen Barry works as a parliamentary assistant with Michel Collins, who is the Independent Ireland TD for Cork South West. Independent Ireland was formed in 2023 by Independent TDs Michael Collins and Richard O’Donoghue to provide an alternative to the establishment political parties. The party is on the right of the Irish political spectrum and currently has three TDs, one MEP, and 24 councillors.

Michael Creed has been a mainstay of local politics in Macroom since he was co-opted onto the LEA by his cousin, outgoing Cork North-West TD Michael Creed, in 2007. The Carrigaphooka resident has enjoyed great support, particularly from rural voters, in elections he has contested since then. He secured a seat on Macroom Municipal District (Blarney-Macroom in 2014) on the first count in the 2009, 2014, 2019 and this year’s Local Elections. Despite his experience, the upcoming election will mark the first time Cllr Creed, who works for the Department of Agriculture, contests a General Election.

Colette Finn served as Cork City councillor from 2019 to 2024 and also as Deputy Lord Mayor of the city from 2023 to earlier this year. A former UCC researcher and Hospital Laboratory Service worker, she first ran for election in 2019 and secured the third of seven seats in Cork City South-West after receiving 1,484 first-preference votes in a race that included 18 candidates. The following year, Finn bid for a Dáil seat in Cork North-West and garnered a respectable 3,495 first-preferences and was eliminated on the second count. In this year’s Local Elections, she won less than half the vote she gathered in 2019 and failed to retain her seat.

Becky Kealy is a resident of Kanturk and has stood as an Aontú candidate in the last two elections, missing out on winning a seat on both occasions. The 33-year-old, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, received 3,877 first-preferences as a first-time candidate in Cork North-West in the 2020 General Election and was eliminated on the third count. Running for Kanturk LEA in the Local elections held in June, Kealy won 953 first-preferences and benefitted from transfers from Sinn Féin’s Evelyn O’Keeffe and was not eliminated until the final count, when outgoing Charleville councillor beat her to the last seat.

Joe Moore has a long record of fighting for workers’ rights and against all forms of oppression. He has been an active member of the Communications Workers Union for over 40 years and has held the position of branch secretary in the Cork District Branch for 14 years. Mr Moore is a founder and active member of Traveller and Settled Solidarity and Anti-Deportation Ireland. He is also a member of the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Cork Communities United against Austerity and Division. Housing, public services, special needs supports, combatting racism, support for Palestine, and climate measures that don’t punish working people are the top priorities for Mr Moore.

Hailing from a family steeped in Fianna Fáil, Aindrias Moynihan has served as a Cork North-West TD since 2016 and began his career in politics as a local representative for Macroom, where he draws much of his support from. He was co-opted onto Cork County Council in 2003 in place of his father Donal, who himself served five terms as a Cork North-West TD, and won election to the local authority in 2004, 2009 and 2014. He secured election to the Dáil after winning the second seat in Cork North-West in 2016 and won the most first-preferences (9,628) in the constituency in 2020 to secure a second term.

Michael Moynihan was first elected as a Cork North-West TD in 1997 and the Fianna Fáil representative has secured a seat in the constituency in all five General Elections since then. The Kiskeam native, who is the chairperson of the Oireachtas Disability Matters Committee, enjoys considerable support in Kanturk and the wider Duhallow region in the north of the constituency. Moynihan has accumulated over 7,000 first preferences in every election he has contested. His lowest share came in 2016, when he received 7,332 number ones, while he won over 27% of the vote (10,540 votes) in 2002. The last General Election saw the outgoing TD collect 8,651 first-preferences.

John O’Leary is from Kerry Pike in Cork and lists his occupation as a businessman. He is also known as Sean O’Leary and previously ran in several constituencies in the 2020 General Election and is now listed in several constituencies this time around as well, including Cork North West. He garnered headlines last time for canvassing from an hospital trolley and listed healthcare and homelessness among his key concerns.

John Paul O’Shea is the leader of Fine Gael on Cork County Council and served as Mayor of the County from 2015-2016. Cllr O’Shea, who hails from Lombardstown, secured a Mallow LEA seat as an Independent candidate in his first election in 2009. He has won a council seat in every subsequent Local Elections, in Kanturk-Mallow in 2014 and Kanturk in 2019 and 2024. The councillor, who first ran for Fine Gael in 2019, has always had Dáil ambitions but failed to win a seat in Cork North-West in the previous two General Elections. In 2016, he received 4,814 first preferences and increased his tally to 7,065 in 2020.

Millstreet native Nicole Ryan will run for public office for the first time in the upcoming election. The 31-year-old, who now lives in Baile Bhuirne, became an anti-drugs campaigner after her brother Alex died after taking a synthetic party drug in 2016 and she has run an enterprise educating secondary school students on the dangers of substance abuse since then. Nicole has received honours, including a Pride of Cork award in 2021, in recognition of her anti-drugs advocacy and her “courage and leadership” were hailed by Sinn Féin party leader Mary Lou McDonald after her candidacy for Cork North-West was announced in August. Nicole becomes just the third Sinn Féin candidate to stand in the constituency, after Nigel Dennehy (2016) and Des O’Grady (2011).

Walter Ryan-Purcell is contesting his first general election but it will not be the first time he has run before the people. Mr Ryan-Purcell ran as an Independent candidate in the 2019 European elections for Ireland South and accumulated 2,864 first-preference votes (0.40% share) before being eliminated on the fourth count. He has a background in agricultural science and marketing while he has also spent years working in the renewable energy, recycling and food industries.