ANALYSIS: Racket Hall protests did not hurt top Roscrea candidates

When the Racket Hall protests erupted in January, accusations of racism were levelled at the people of Roscrea.

But, if this weekend’s Local Elections result is anything to go by, it would seem Roscrea is a tale of two towns.

At the time, Shane Lee made speeches outside the hotel and supported the protests. Since then, he has been an outspoken supporter of the protesters who continue to campaign against the refuge centres and the handling of protests by gardaí.

Michael Smith initially spoke out against the protests saying immigration is good for Roscrea.

He has been a supporter of those seeking asylum in the area attracting online abuse as a result.

But, this weekend, that support was returned by the electorate. Mr Smith topped the poll with 2,460 votes, just over 100 less than in 2019 when he was also elected on the first count.

CAPTION: Michael Smith (FF) topped the poll

So, while his support does not seem to have grown, it hasn’t taken any major blows either.

Shane Lee, on the other hand, saw big gains this election around.

In 2019, he was elected on the fifth count with 1,897 votes, 1,321 of those first preference. In 2024 he was elected on the first count with 2,231.

It is hard to attribute any one factor to his success without risk of a correlation equals causation error.

Other factors in his success might be that he is an incumbent and a member of the Lowry Team.

In January, protesters regularly claimed to speak for the entirety of Roscrea. Commenters on social media were split between support and condemnation of Roscrea as a whole, and some pointed out that Roscrea is not a monolith.

Some likely many people, do not believe Roscrea is full or that the location or motivation for the protests was appropriate

In any case, the two councillors elected in the first count on Saturday night, certainly did not suffer for their opposing views.