Sheridan suffers setback after failing to secure Meath nomination

Gareth Sheridan’s presidential hopes have suffered a setback after he narrowly failed to secure a nomination from Meath County Council.

Fourteen members of the council voted against a proposal to nominate Mr Sheridan, with 13 backing the proposal.

There were five abstentions and eight absentees.

Mr Sheridan already had two of the four required nominations through local authorities to formally enter the contest, having previously secured nods from Kerry and Tipperary county councils.

The 36-year-old millionaire entrepreneur was among several hopefuls pitching to Meath County Council on Monday morning.

Mr Sheridan is next due to seek a nomination from Offaly County Council after lunch, with his campaign also indicating he will be able to pitch to Louth County Council later in the evening.

It leaves the hopeful with just a narrow path to entering the race ahead of the nomination window closing at midday on Wednesday, with most local authorities having finalised their processes.

His campaign has downplayed an “administrative glitch” behind concerns he had not submitted required documentation to Louth County Council, believing he would still be in a position to seek a last-ditch nod from the local authority.

Elsewhere in the race, independent Catherine Connolly – who has secured the support of Sinn Fein, Labour, the Social Democrats, the Greens and People Before Profit – will formally launch her campaign in Dublin on Monday evening.

Fianna Fail candidate Jim Gavin and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys formally lodged their papers on Friday.

Attention has also been brought on independent candidate Maria Steen, who is claiming the support of 13 members of the Oireachtas behind her nomination campaign.

She is due to meet the Independent Ireland party, who had indicated it would be willing to support a “like-minded” candidate with four votes to get them over the line of the 20 required nominations from TDs and senators.

Meanwhile, Mr Gavin announced that he had written to social media giants X, Meta and TikTok as well as media regulator Coimisiun na Mean about several “invented and utterly false stories” published about him online.

In a statement, his campaign said the “vicious smears” were attempts to damage his presidential bid.

It said Meta has confirmed that several posts have been taken down while responses are still awaited from X, TikTok and Coimisiun na Mean.

Mr Gavin said: “Every person in our country knows the real and growing threat posed by online hate and disinformation. It is one of the forces driving the growing division and conflict in many societies. It is the cause of mental health issues amongst our young people due to online bullying and harassment.”

He added: “I refuse to accept that the price of participating in public life should involve having to put your family and friends through waves of online abuse and malicious smears.

“This is not the cost of service – it is a failure of our digital culture.

“I will continue to take whatever action is necessary to confront this appalling feature of social media.”