PREMIUM: Gript election focus – Can Aontú or anyone upset the CNW cartel?

If you were to look around the country in the aftermath of the 2020 election, and ask yourself “where did Sinn Fein leave seats on the table”, then a very strong candidate constituency would have been the three-seated Cork North West, where the party did not even run a candidate.

Of course, it is difficult to blame them for not having run a candidate: Cork North West is one of the most predictable constituencies in the country. At every single election since the present constituency was first constituted in 1981, the voters of Cork North-West have returned one of only two results: They have either sent two Fianna Fáilers and one Fine Gaeler to Dublin, or they have sent two Fine Gaelers and one Fianna Fáiler. Nobody else has had a look in for forty-three years, and counting.