Sligo Labour candidate withdraws in McGarry protest

A LABOUR party candidate in the local elections has sensationally withdrawn his name from the ticket and said he may stand as an independent.

Martin Cadden had been selected as a candidate for the party in the Sligo Strandhill electoral area for Sligo County Council and in the West Ward for the Sligo Borough Council election.
But at a selection convention last Saturday night Mr Cadden announced that he was withdrawing his name in protest at the insistence by party headquarters that three candidates should run in the Sligo Strandhill area instead of the expected two.
Mr Cadden said that the decision to field three candidates had been made to allow Alderman Jim Garry (who left Fine Gael to join the Labour party) to stand in the area.
Mr Cadden was critical of the admission of Cllr McGarry into the Labour party.
“Cllr McGarry has down the years been totally and utterly opposed to everything that the Labour party stood for. The Labour party has been opposed to service charges but Cllr McGarry had supported and proposed these charges.
“I was totally disillusioned. I felt that I couldn’t be a part of any ticket that he was on”, he said.
However, McGarry has rejected Mr Cadden’s claims that the party headquarters had changed the rules to allow his name to go forward.