Left wing rush for Dublin EU seats

The large number of candidates shows the left’s dysfunctionality, says Labour’s Alex White

Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats with local election candidate Sarah Durkin, canvassing in Ringsend: This election is ‘the biggest challenge of my political life’

Alex White doesn’t feel betrayed, but he is certainly exasperated at the number of left-leaning candidates in Dublin battling for a European Parliament seat. They include a name familiar to many in Labour, Alice-Mary Higgins.

“Nothing illustrates the dysfunctionality on the left in Ireland as [clearly as] the ballot paper for the European Parliament elections,” said White, the Labour candidate in the capital. “There are 19 candidates in Dublin and a huge number ...