Sinn Fein have 'had better days', says Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan

LIMERICK Sinn Fein City TD Maurice Quinlivan has admitted his party have "had better days".

Mary-Lou McDonald's party have had a difficult set of elections in Limerick.

According to tallying, Mr Quinlivan was a distant fifth in the election for directly elected mayor, despite being bullish about his chances early on.

Meanwhile, their candidate in City North, Cllr Sharon Benson is facing a battle to hang on, and will be hoping for a strong transfer from her running mates.

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The party still hopes to return one of its two councillors in City East - but Malachy McCreesh in City West is facing an uphill battle to be elected.

In Cappamore-Kilmallock PJ Carey is facing a battle to hang onto his seat, while in Adare-Rathkeale, Joanne Collins - the party's general election candidate in the rural area - is unlikely to secure a berth, according to tallies. In Newcastle West, Padraig Collins polled at 7.5%, according to tallies - but this is not expected to be enough to see him across the line.

"We could have done a lot better. We'd hoped to do a lot better. Counts are still coming in. We'll see what we come back with. If we come back with what we went in with, it won't be too bad," said Mr Quinlivan, whose party elected two councillors back in 2019.

He admits the mayoralty will likely be won by another candidate and says whoever that is, they will get their full support.

Asked if he felt the party has run too many candidates in some parts of Limerick, the TD, who topped the poll in the 2020 general election said: "Since then, there hasn't been a single day when people haven't said we need to have more candidates. We ran more candidates based on opouinion polls going back to 2020. Obviously we weere poling higher when we decided to do this."

"But we are where we are. You take a gamble. We could have left seats behind us if we had polled higher. It's politics, you make mistakes," he added.

He also reflected on the fact that Sinn Fein underperformed at the 2019 local election, before dominating at the general election eight months later.