The Labor Party chooses its Kilkenny candidate for the upcoming general election

Labor has selected Sean O’hArgain to contest the upcoming general election in Carlow-Kilkenny, with growing speculation that the vote could take place in November.

Councilor O’hArgain was nominated and ratified by his party at the selection convention at the ClubHouse Hotel on Wednesday evening. Among those present was TD and former party leader Alan Kelly.

Long-time Labor member, Cllr O’hArgain, was elected to Kilkenny County Council in the June local elections after leaving he lost his seat in 2014. It was a triumphant return to politics, thanks to which he regained his seat in the old stronghold of the late Seamus Pattison.

The former school principal was previously a borough councilor and served as Mayor of Kilkenny in 2012–2013. She is currently trying to become Labor’s first senator since Ann Phelan in 2011. She won the first seat but lost in 2016 as the party performed poorly across the board.

Denis Hynes, then a Labor councilor who later joined Sinn Fein, stood for Labor for the last time (2020) but polled just 2,208 first preferences and was not elected.