‘We were swimming against the tide’, accepts departing Dáil deputy Brian Leddin

THE GREEN Party’s Brian Leddin accepted that he was “swimming against the tide” in his bid to retain his Dail seat in the Limerick City constituency.

Mr Leddin, who in 2020 became the first Green Party TD to represent Limerick was eliminated early from the race on - Sunday, just before 10:30am.

The engineer was the only person to lose a seat among all seven TDs across Limerick City and County, and in doing so, reflected a national trend of the Greens having several TD titles stripped from them in a bitterly disappointing campaign.

The prospect of Mr Leddin losing his seat - the fourth seat in the City - was apparent from early doors on Saturday morning and he was knocked out of the race on count seven, with poll topper Willie O’Dea of Fianna Fail being elected on count six, at approximately 11:30pm on Saturday evening.

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Mr Leddin conceded the final seat to newly elected TD, Conor Sheehan, who was elected shortly before 9pm on Sunday.

The dust had settled on Monday morning and with it, Mr Leddin, a former UL student, was less inclined to speak. While he wasn’t forthcoming, he did say he is “taking a break” and that he will reconvene in the future.

“I will be active in trying to push the progress I was making as a politician, but it will be in some other way,” he said.

A former councillor, Mr Leddin failed to be elected in the Mayoral election earlier this year, with the weekend’s result being a double blow for the 44-year-old.

“I think I had an excellent campaign, it’s actually the best campaign I’ve been involved with. We were swimming against the tide, we knew that,” said the Clancy Strand man.

“I got into politics unexpectedly and I’m really proud to have had that opportunity.

“I will continue in one way or another and it is a long, long struggle, but we will keep going.

“There will be good days and bad days, I knew that from the outset, but we will have better times again.”

In 2020, Mr Leddin edged out Cllr Frankie Daly to the final seat in the City in what was a Green wave nationwide.