Inside Sinn Féin’s marathon Carlow-Kilkenny battle: ‘Both of us are unknown. But it can be done’ (2024)

On a Sunday morning in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, the weather has finally turned. Temperatures have plummeted for the first time this autumn and an icy drizzle sets in over the river Barrow. Canvassing with her six-year-old son Archie, who happily stuffs election leaflets in letterboxes, Áine Gladney Knox is equal parts determined and emotional.

Knox is one of two Sinn Féin candidates in Carlow-Kilkenny, and the party has its work cut out.

Newly elected MEP Kathleen Funchion is a big electoral loss for the party. She secured a whopping 23.75 per cent of first preference votes in the 2020 general election and was elected on the first count with 17,500 votes, smashing the quota of 12,274.

That was on the back of a Sinn Féin surge at the time, and things are a little more uncertain now. Political opponents are seizing upon the fact that Knox, and the party’s other Carlow-Kilkenny candidate Natasha Newsome Drennan, unsuccessfully contested this summer’s local elections.

Knox, who is heavily involved in local charities and is an advocate for mental health supports, says she is not paying attention to polls or comments.

“It’s head down, drive on. We have to canvass every door. As for polls, we are not listening to polls. We just keep fighting.”

She’s undeterred by how the local elections played out, too.

“For me, I came into it extremely late. There were 3½ weeks left. It was extremely tough at the time. It was more to get a feel to see if I wanted to run in the general election. I am driven for a lot of reasons. I have Archie, and Harry is 13. If my kids want to travel, great, fine. But I don’t want them to have to leave their country for a better life. That is why I am here.”

Here, her defiance cracks a little.

“It has been tough without dad, though. It’s been the hardest part of the campaign. He is the glue that holds us all together.”

Her father, councillor Andy Gladney, is unwell, in a lot of pain, and has been unable to canvass with her.

He is referenced by a number of people who answer the doors on the canvass in Bagenalstown.

“If Áine is half as good and follows in her father’s footsteps, she’ll be going places,” says one man. On the doors, the issues that come up are housing, childcare and access to disability supports.

At one door, a woman tells Knox that she is on a years-long waiting list for an assessment of needs for her son.

“He’s really struggling,” the woman says. Knox says there is a three-year waiting list for the nearest children’s disability network team and promises that Sinn Féin will be committed to addressing the issue.

Funchion joins her on the canvass and receives a warm welcome across the town. She has been canvassing around the country and says she believes people are souring on the once-off package of measures announced by the outgoing government in the recent budget.

“People really are questioning why Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil didn’t do some of the stuff that they are now promising in their recent budgets, especially around things like the proposed VAT cut, which has come up a lot. There is definitely a credibility issue there. I think people are a lot more clued in. I’ve been in a number of counties and people are definitely noticing that these one-off payments [are] at a time when there is a lack of general services.” One thing which does slightly alarm the Sinn Féin team is the number of “not-ins” – or the number of people who are simply not answering the door to anyone.

“It will come down to the voter coming out and using their voice,” Knox says.

“That is really it. That’s the key point,” Funchion agrees.

In Kilkenny, where Knocktopher’s Natasha Newsome Drennan is running, she says that in some places they might get 20 per cent of doors to open.

Like Knox, she is similarly bullish about the party’s chances but admits freely that their lack of national recognition works against them.

“I definitely think that we can do it, with the work we are doing. The biggest issue is that both of us are unknown. But I still think by knocking on enough doors it can be done,” Drennan says.

“People are really tuning in now,” she says, noting that many people on the doors have remarked to her that the once-off payments announced by the government will be gone by Christmas.

She is also unperturbed when asked about this summer’s local elections, and says her hometown was just outside the local electoral area where she ran, where she lost out by 91 votes.

“If I’d had my village’s votes, it would have happened for me.” She says she was also new, and battling candidates with incumbency advantages and greater name recognition.

“I was so close. If we were on fairer ground I would have got it. The person who is coming in brand new couldn’t have done the work that others have, they’d have to be a superstar pulling votes for no reason.”

Drennan lives in Mullinavat with her husband John and their four boys, running a suckler farm. She also works in the disability sector. On the doors, the big issues are housing, access to disability services and the cost of living.

“Because I come from a disability background, that is hitting. There are so many people with a child waiting on some kind of assessment of need. They relate to me because of that. I am a voice for those people, I have been that voice. I can see where the services need to go in.”

“During the local elections, there were a lot of people telling me that they felt they were forgotten about, that they never see anyone unless there’s an election going on. There is a feeling in Kilkenny that it is so important that we get a TD down in the south. But I don’t take anything for granted.”

Funchion held her seat for eight years after making historic inroads for Sinn Féin in Carlow-Kilkenny, so the pressure is on both of the new election candidates. With nine days to go and a race against the clock, both candidates are banking on a boots-on-the-ground campaign which will see them canvass hundreds more doors, after which point it will be out of their hands.

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