Could a well known Kilkenny councillor be about to return to local politics?

Tributes were paid to Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere and Michael Doyle at December’s sitting of the Callan-Thomastown Municipal District following both men’s General Election crusades in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency.

It proved to be a long wait for ’Chap’ Cleere to learn his fate who was less than 100 votes short of the quota after the fourteenth count but then received an additional 1,772 votes from the surplus of Catherine Callaghan (Fine Gael) to secure election for the very first time with a total of 13,312 votes from the electorate.

Fianna Fáil’s Deirdre Cullen congratulated her party colleague ‘Chap’ Cleere on his ‘outstanding’ campaign, claiming he will be a great ‘rural voice’, joking, ‘if we need anyhting done, we know who to call.’

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Meanwhile, Cllr Michael Doyle was eliminated after the tenth count in ninth position out of twenty candidates with 5,467 votes. Cllr Cullen also expressed her commiserations to Mr Doyle, complimenting his ‘phenomenal campaign’, acknowledging his excellent contributions as a councillor to date, adding, he will carry on in the same vein in the future.

Speculation continues to mount over who will be co-opted take Cleere’s spot on Kilkenny County Council with his vacated Callan-Thomastown MD seat now lying idle.

Matt Doran, who served as a county councillor in Kilkenny for 22 years is amongst the names being touted.

Mr Doran alongside Patrick O’Neill stepped away from local politics at the end of the last electoral cycle.