Noel French added to Fine Gael Dáil ticket in Meath West

Trim area Cllr Noel French has this evening been added to the ticket for the Meath West constituency by the Fine Gael National Executive. His addition to the ticket comes after the recent deselection of Senator Ray Butler as running mate of Minister Damien English and Cllr Sarah Reilly.

The addition of Cllr French to the Fine Gael ticket, and the stepping down of Sinead Geraghty from the Fianna Fail ticket, where she was to run alongside Shane Cassells TD, changes the face of the two main parties' election tickets in Meath West.

In May, Cllr French romped home to be the first man elected to Meath County Council, with a massive vote tally of 2,954 - which was 1,403 votes over the Trim electoral area quota of 1,551. This was the highest vote ever achieved by a candidate in any Meath local election. Cllr French has been a Meath county councillor since 2014, having filled a vacancy on Trim Town Council the previous year.  

The Rosscarbery, Co Cork, native is a distant cousin of Sam Maguire on both his father’s and mother’s sides. His two great grandmothers were aunts of Sam Maguire.  Very interested in local history, Cllr French has researched and published more than thirty books and articles. He is a recognised expert on the local history of Meath and holds a masters in local studies from Maynooth University.

Noel French highlighting tourism in Trim in the early 1990s.

He has an unrivalled breadth of knowledge of the history of the Boyne Valley and an enthusiasm for communicating it in an engaging style. His latest book, a guide to the Boyne Valley and Meath, was published by Mercier Press in 2018 and launched by RTE’s Myles Dungan. 
Cllr French has been very active in community organisations throughout Meath over the last three decades. and was named the Royal Meath Association's Meath Personality of the Year in 1992 for his community and history work. 

On his reasons for running, Cllr French says: “I want to make a difference, make a change so to make people’s lives better.” 

Sinead Geraghty received 431 first preference votes in the Trim electoral area and was eliminated in the third count. The sole Fianna Fail representative in the south Meath area is Cllr Aisling Dempsey, who now looks a certainty to be added on to the ticket if the party stays with its two-candidate strategy.