Gareth Sheridan secures his second Presidential Nomination from Tipperary

Gareth Sheridan has secured a second Presidential Election nomination today, this time from Tipperary County Council. The decision might surprise some, as it involved certain Councillors making a decision to defy the Party whip.

Yesterday, Sheridan was supported in his bid for the Áras by Kerry County Council. With two council nominations now behind him, Gareth Sheridan requires only two more to become an official Presidential candidate.

Not that it will be easy to secure the additional two. So far, Dublin, Cork and Galway city councils, and Laois, Roscommon, Longford and Galway county councils have all decided not to nominate any candidate for the upcoming election, which takes place on 24 October 2025.

The process in Tipperary mirrored the way in which the vote was handled in Kerry. A motion was put to Tipperary councillors not to nominate a candidate. However that proposal was defeated by the narrowest of margins, 20 votes to 19.

Gareth Sheridan subsequently won the council's nomination by 17 votes to three, with 16 councillors abstaining from voting. Reports confirm that four councillors were absent from the vote.

BRUISING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

During his presentation to Tipperary councillors, Sheridan made the point that – in Jim Gavin – the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, had chosen someone with no political experience to be Fianna Fáil's presidential candidate.

Sheridan pointed out that – while politically inexperienced – he, too, had exceptional life experience. He was one of a “handful" of people who floated a company on a US stock exchange, having built a successful business which aims to deliver pain medication safely.

Among the councillors who voted for Gavin Sheridan was Fine Gael’s Mary Hanna Hourigan. She was concerned, she said, that it would be ‘undemocratic' not to increase the number of candidates and give credible candidates an opportunity to get on the ballot.

She believed that having a “three-horse race" for the Presidency is not enough.

"He reached out to people and councillors for the past year,” she said. "He is not a fly by night person."

That assessment notwithstanding, Mary Hanna Hourigan openly declared her own support for the Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys – who she’d love to see follow President Michael D.Higgins in the role.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin remain undecided as to whether or not they will run candidate. With party leader Mary Lou McDonald having ruled herself out recently, speculation has turned to the party’s spokesperson on finance, Pearse Doherty.

However, others believe that the unrelenting, bruising nature of a Presidential campaign in which one’s entire past is deemed fair game would not work in Doherty’s favour. A decision will be made this coming weekend, but it seems increasingly likely that the party will row in behind the independent left candidate, Catherine Connolly – who is already supported by the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Labour Party.

That would indeed make it a three-horse race – unless the increasingly buoyant Gareth Sheridan can bring two more councils across the line. It promises to be an interesting week!