Pictures: Castlecomer Local Electoral Area's nine candidates

Nine candidates will go head to head trying to secure six seats in the Castlecomer Electoral Area in the upcoming local elections.

All six sitting candidates — John Brennan (Fine Gael) Mary Hilda Cavanagh (Fine Gael), Michael Delaney (Fianna Fáil), Pat Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fáil), Denis Hynes (Sinn Féin) and Michael McCarthy (Fianna Fáil) are seeking to be re-elected with Daniel Burke (Independent), Stephen Delaney (The Irish People), and Maurice Shortall (Independent) all vying for seats.

Click through to see the candidates - or read on below.

This is a predominantly rural electoral area and traditionally voters have opted to vote largely in favour of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Castlecomer is the main town in the electoral area with Ballyragget, Freshford, Urlingford and Johnstown also having sizeable populations.

Last time out, Fianna Fail’s Pat Fitzpatrick topped the poll with a huge first preference vote of 2,249 — a share of more than 22%. He is seeking to keep his seat, alongside Fianna Fail colleagues Michael McCarthy, who was first elected in 2014 and grew his vote last time out, and Michael Delaney, a newcomer in 2019.

The Fine Gael representatives in the area are John Brennan, who has held his seat since 1991, and Mary Hilda Cavanagh, who is Ireland’s longest-serving, continuously elected female councillor. Already a history maker, she will be aiming to break more records by winning a tenth consecutive local election. No small feat.

Denis Hynes is the area’s other sitting representative, elected for the Labour Party in 2019, before switching to Sinn Fein in 2021.

There will be a lot of eyes on new candidate in the area Independent Maurice Shortall. He is a nephew of his namesake Maurice Shortall, the popular former Labour councillor who was the poll-topper here in 2014 (and in the former Ballyragget area in 2009 and 2004). He will almost certainly pull some of the vote share from some of the sitting councillors, particularly in the heart of ’Comer. Will it be enough?

Fellow first-time candidates Dan Burke and Stephen Delaney will also hope they can shake things up and offer a challenge to the established party candidates.