Goldsboro not giving up quest to secure Dáil seat for Fianna Fáil in south Tipperary

Fianna Fáil Cllr Imelda Goldsboro is not giving up her dream of representing Tipperary South as a TD despite the heartbreaking way her hopes of clinching the final seat in the constituency were dashed in the last count on Sunday evening.

When asked if she would seek the nomination to represent her party again in the next General Election, she declared: “Without a doubt, I am not going anywhere.”

The Seanad elections are around the corner in January and she confirmed she was “weighing up her options” in relation to seeking a seat in the upper house.

“All options are on the table at the moment. We are weighing up everything and seeing how it goes. I would be concerned that Fianna Fáil has no Oireachtas presence in south Tipperary. That would be a big concern to me,” she said.

The Ballingarry councillor found out how cruel politics can be when veteran Independent Seamus Healy leapfrogged ahead of her in the sixth count to take the third seat.

She polled the third highest first preference vote in the Tipperary South race and remained in that position up to end of the fifth count when 955 votes divided her from Healy.

But it wasn’t enough to keep her sufficiently clear of the founder of the left-wing Workers & Unemployment Action Group and republican when Sinn Féin candidate Martin Browne’s 6,237 votes were distributed following his dramatic elimination from the race.

Cllr Goldsboro secured 577 transfers from the distribution of Browne’s votes bringing her total to 7,848.

Healy, however, secured a massive 3,285 transfers bringing his total to 9,601 – a decisive 1,753 votes ahead of his Fianna Fáil rival.

Cllr Goldsboro was present with her family and supporters in the Tipperary Count Centre in Thurles throughout the nerve-racking sixth count. The strain of the occasion was etched in her face.

The mother-of-three left shortly before the count’s results were announced after it became clear Healy was going to win the final seat. Despite the deep disappointment and emotion she felt, she went over to the Clonmel man and congratulated him before departing.

She confessed afterwards the fact she was in third place up to the last count made the disappointment more acute. She had been receiving messages of congratulations from well-wishers who thought the third seat was hers. It would have been easier to take if she had been 2,000 votes behind all along, she said.

She admitted that before the count even started she knew the game was up and Browne’s transfers would push Healy ahead of her just as Healy’s transfers had ensured Browne’s election in 2020.

“If Healy was knocked out instead of Browne on Sunday, would it have been any different? I don’t think so.”

Cllr Goldsboro said looking back there was nothing she and her campaign team would have done differently.

“There is no point in doing post-mortems or looking back on it with regret. We got fantastic support and help. We put in long days knocking on doors. We did everything we could.”

She was “absolutely delighted” her first preference vote improved by 1,756 ballots from her 2020 General Election performance in the former all-county five-seat Tipperary constituency race.

She thanked her family, friends, campaign team and all who voted for her for their support and she was very appreciative of the messages she received from well-wishers.

In relation to the overall result in Tipperary South, Cllr Goldsboro said she is concerned the three TDs elected are concentrated in Clonmel and its hinterland and there is a large area of the constituency without a local TD.

Cllr Goldsboro said it would have been “phenomenal” if south Tipperary elected two TDs from parties likely to form the new Government as there are so many communities looking for funding for different projects.

“Michael Murphy will make a fantastic TD. He is a very capable and diligent man. I know he will do his level best but south Tipperary is a large area.”

She also voiced concern about what she sees as false promises made by some of the winning candidates. She pointed to Seamus Healy’s promise to reopen St Brigid’s District Hospital in Carrick as an example of a promise she believed wasn’t going to be realised and which Deputy Healy was not going to be in a position to deliver.

At national level, she believes the new coalition government will have to look at what it can do to help college students and people struggling to get on the property ladder while locally she will be working as hard as possible to secure funding for south Tipperary and on ways to further build the Fianna Fáil party’s presence in the constituency.