Monaghan's Matt Carthy says it's too early to rule his Sinn Féin colleague, Michelle Gildernew, out of the Midlands-North West European election race. Sinn Féin went from six seats to eight in Monaghan at the weekend. In Cavan, they lost one seat and took three new ones, giving them a gain there of two.
Cavan-Monaghan TD Matt Carthy admits he was "in a bubble" in the early part of Saturday morning as Sinn Féin candidates swept the board in Monaghan, steadily increased their mandate in Cavan and, at that stage, Gildernew was topping the polls for Europe. However, today he concedes, that things look less rosy for his party with losses all over the country.
The former MEP, told the Joe Finnegan Show that as director of elections for the Midlands North West constituency, he and the rest of the leadership in Sinn Féin recognise and need to reflect on their failure to produce a "bounce" where needed. But he refused to rule Gildernew out even at this stage: "This time five years ago, I was getting into the car to drive to Castlebar to in the full expectations and with the absolute certainty of some people in the media that we had lost that seat and we held on to it quite comfortably in the end," the TD told the Joe Finnegan Show, "There's going to be huge disparity in where votes are coming from, transfers are going to be crucial: I wouldn't dare make a prediction."
