Aidan Browne wins SocDem’s Castlebar local election nomination

Lahardane’s Aidan Browne was selected as the Social Democrats’ candidate for the Castlebar area in the forthcoming local elections.

The decision was made at a selection convention held last Thursday.

Mr Browne, who works in film and television production and holds a degree in politics, had been seeking the nomination for several months and came into the convention with some momentum, having been a part of the recent successful campaign to save the Lahardane doctor’s office from closure.

Speaking about his nomination, Mr Browne said he was ‘pleased and honoured to have been selected’.

As the first nominee from Addergoole to have received a party nomination in the last 25 years, Mr Browne is ‘proud to be working with a party that’s putting Healthcare and Housing at the top of its agenda because those are exactly [his own] priorities’. 

“I’m 33 years old, my party leader is 34; we’re a young party that understands the needs of young families because we’re personally experiencing all the same issues. We know all too well how important it is to have people on the ground fighting for public services, and I can say with confidence that if you support the Social Democrats, that’s exactly what you’ll get” he said.

While Mr Browne’s name was the only one formally put to a vote, it was understood that he had not been the only one seeking a nomination from the party.

Mark Gannon of Castlebar town had also been interested but was forced to drop out at the last minute citing family commitments.

All this came just 24 hours before the launch of the party's two-day national convention in Dublin this past weekend.

Party leader Holly Cairns’ speech was aired live on RTE1 on Saturday, where she touted that the party would be seeking to run up to 100 candidates in the local elections, and would stand a candidate in all 3 Irish constituencies in the European elections.

This election cycle sees the Social Democrats making a major push into rural areas; Mr Browne is amongst 65 already confirmed local candidates standing in counties such as Leitrim, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Tipperary and Clare.

During Ms Cairns’ speech, she stated the Social Democrats would be willing to go into coalition with other parties following the next general election, but said the party’s ‘red line’ would be the implementation of Slaintécare. 

‘Slaintécare’ is a proposed Irish version of universal healthcare which, amongst other things, would make visits to a GP’s office and visits to A&E free at the point of entry.

Both local and European elections are expected to be contested the first week of June.