A 17 page document “The Case for Establishing A Nationwide Hallowe’en Festival in Ireland” produced by Catherine Murphy in 2013. Many thanks to the sender.

From the 2011 General Election in Kildare North a flyer from Independent candidate Catherine Murphy urging voters not to listen if they hear that her seat is safe. Having won the 2005 Kildare North by-election she lost her seat in 2007 partly due to being seen as safe.
From the 1989 General Election a leaflet from Workers Party candidate Catherine Murphy who was running in Kildare. She polled 1,520 votes.
On the same day she was also running in Leinster in the European Elections where she polled 7,089 votes.
Initially elected to Leixlip Town Commission in 1988, she was elected to Kildare County council in 1991 running for the Workers Party.She stood for the Democratic Left in the 1992 and 1997 General Elections before standing for Labour in the 1999 Local Elections. She resigned from Labour and stood as an Independent in the 2004 local elections and sensationally won the 2005 by-election before losing her seat in the 2007 General Election. She topped the poll in in the 2009 Local elections.
Many of the policies and issues mentioned are as relevant now as they were in 1989.
Catherine Murphys Website and Catherine Murphy at electionsireland.org
Former Workers Party, democratic Left and Labour Councillor Catherine Murphy (who has been very kind in sending her election literature over the years) from her successful by election campaign in 2005. This is just her flyer, I’ll put up more detailed stuff in due course. However it does show the pressures on North Kildare at the time such as school places and recreation facilities, indicating that a lot of the estates built were done so without adequate facilities.
There were high hopes that both Michael Enright and Catherine Murphy could put down a marker for future Dail progress. A General election was held on the same day and it was hoped that their candidacy in the Euro Elections would give them a boost.
Although the Workers Party vote increased from 1984s Euro Election, both candidates lost their deposits with a combined 4.38% of the vote.
In the General election Enrights vote actually fell, whilst Murphys 1,520 vote was decent enough in the circumstances (An ‘Army Wives’ candidate, Carol Tiernan also stood in Kildare polling 2,690 votes, some of which would have gone to Murphy).
The thorny issue of party policy towards Farmers must have also had an impact on the vote. “Reorganisation of Agricultural production…”
wasn’t the policy to have rural voters flocking to the party. Also we had another new party ‘Logo’.
In the late 80’s North Kildare was seen a major growth area of the Workers Party. In 1988 Catherine Murphy and Colm Purcell (who later joined Labour) had been elected to Leixlip Town Commission, although Murphy didn’t do brilliantly in the following years General and European Elections. The recently formed Maynooth branch get a mention at the back. Among them Fiachra O Ceilleachair who served as a Democratic Left and later a Labour councillor in Waterford. Also there is Geography lecturer Prionsias Breathnach who is still a regular contributor to various publications (as well as his own).
1989s marked shift in party policy is illustrated by the welcome given to Intel. Not just that but we have Catherine Murphy acting as a conduit for Intel recruiters. What we also see here is that Water Quality issues are not a recent thing!
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