*Conor O’Sulivan with his wife Ann.
SINN FÉIN will be fielding candidates in every electoral area in Clare for the local elections following the addition of Conor O’Sullivan (SF) to their ticket.
Born in England to a Quilty father and a mother from Listowel, Conor has lived in Co Clare since 1995 and is running in the Ennistymon local electoral area.
Sixty two year old Conor recalled of his youth growing up in England, “My parents went to England in the 1950s when thew drain came and they couldn’t get work here. I grew up in an Irish community and played gaelic football, I did all the things I would have done as if I had been raised in Ireland”.
Now living in Corofin with his wife Ann, relocating to Ireland was always the plan. “I came back to Co Clare in 1995, it was always my intention to come and live back in Clare, that is where I wanted to be”. He continued, “I was the only one of my family to come back, I had my mind made up from an early age that I wanted to come back to Ireland, I never considered myself English, we called ourselves the lost generation”.
He becomes the eighth candidate in the field for the Ennistymon LEA, all of whom are bidding to win any of the four seats on offer. Formerly a technical liaisons officer with CRC in Dublin and Limerick, Conor was involved with setting up software for children with special needs.
From the age of twenty one, he has been confined to a wheelchair having had cancer in his spine. While living in England, he formed the Disabled Action Group which he described as “a more militant group. We would protest if someone refused us entry into a public building or pub. I’m still a fighter and if I’ve an issue to fight for then I will fight for it”. He is of the belief that a United Ireland can happen in his lifetime.
Housing, health services and disability access are among the main items on his agenda. “I’d always be pushing for public transport especially in rural areas”. He outlined, “I’m a dedicated community activist, one of the things is the disability, we’ve autism in our family, I’m dedicated to working in the community in North Clare, I’m going back to my roots and where I started with Sinn Féin when I came back over”.
O’Sullivan continued, “I’m running as a candidate that wants to get involved in North Clare, I want to be more involved with what is going on especially with public transport, that is very important to me. Disability is very important to me because it affects me”.
Since he was sixteen, Conor has been a Sinn Féin member. “I’ve had a lifetime with Sinn Féin, my whole family come from a Republican background”.
On his decision to enter the election race, Conor told The Clare Echo, “I got the offer a few years back but I didn’t think it was time, I was working and I was involved in other thing. I put myself in for it this time because nobody had come forward. I am a member of Ennis Sinn Féin but also a member of Clare Sinn Féin”.
He is running in North Clare despite not being a member of the party’s branch in this electoral area. “I was in North Clare for some time, it was a friend of mine in Ennis who used to pick me up to get me to the meetings, it was a lot easier to get to meetings in Ennis than Lisdoonvarna,” he said when asked why he wasn’t in the North Clare branch, he said he made this move in 1998.
A fortnight ago, he attended an event at The Helix where he spoke with other candidates and personnel in Sinn Féin’s head office whom he told “there’s been no attempt to get a candidate in North Clare, I said if you want me I’d definitely run in North Clare because there’s loads of issues I want to get involved in”.
For the 2019 local elections, Noeleen Moran (SF) ran as the party’s candidate in the Ennistymon LEA. She had been listed as a candidate for the 2020 General Election but was later deselected and party headquarters issued a directive that only one candidate be selected for the next General Election which saw Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) chosen. On why Noeleen was not put forward in North Clare, Conor commented, “All I can say about Noeleen is I don’t know a lot about why she is not putting her name on the ticket and is not running, the higher office have more answers than what I do”.
He formerly canvassed for Noeleen for the 2016 General Election, for Violet-Anne Wynne (IND) in 2020 before she left the party and Anna Prior (SF) in 2007.
Wynne’s election was seen as a big win for Sinn Féin in 2020, the local elections will be their first time gauging the mood of the Clare public in an election since. “We’ve six candidates running now, we’re trying to win more seats in Clare. We’ve a history of things going wrong, I don’t know the ins and outs but there is an appetite in Clare to pull together and get things done”.
