{"id":110620,"date":"2025-10-29T16:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110620\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T16:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:33:09","slug":"breaking-shock-in-limerick-as-high-profile-labour-politician-quits-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/110620\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Shock in Limerick as high profile Labour politician quits party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THERE is shock in Limerick this Wednesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/section\/309\/politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">lunchtime<\/a> as a high-profile Labour politician quits the party she has represented for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Limerick City East councillor Elena Secas, pictured below, confirmed in a statement she will now sit as an Independent on the local authority.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Elena_Secas-1761746774734.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1436\"\/><\/p>\n<p>She has blamed a lack of support from the party locally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have been a member of and represented the Labour Party for almost 20 years and I have run for the party in all four local elections since 2009, being successfully elected in the past three elections,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/news\/education\/1930392\/limerick-academics-find-tobacco-law-convictions-as-rare-as-a-blue-moon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Limerick academics find Tobacco Law convictions \u2018As rare as a Blue Moon\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, in the last elections, especially in 2024, I had very little support from the party locally and things haven&#8217;t really changed since, so I have now reached the point where I feel I can no longer continue to fly the party flag on my own,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Cllr Secas has insisted she has not taken the decision lightly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am really grateful to the very few local party members who would have supported and helped me in the past. I will continue to serve on Limerick City and County Council as an independent councillor and I wish to assure people that my main priority remains to represent them to the best of my abilities. As an independent councillor, I will continue to work really hard and to uphold the values I have always shared,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>A Moldovan national, and a former journalist by profession, Cllr Secas surprised many by being elected for Labour back in 2014, when the party was at a low ebb in the opinion polls due to the opposition to the water charges at the time.<\/p>\n<p>It was her second time putting her name before the people of Limerick. In 2009, she narrowly missed out on a spot on the old Limerick County Council.<\/p>\n<p>Based in Castletroy, and working in customer services, she retained her seat in 2019 &#8211; where she increased her vote from almost 900 to 1,192 to take the second seat in City East &#8211; and again at last summer&#8217;s local elections.<\/p>\n<p>It means there are two Labour councillors on the local authority: party leader, Cllr Joe Leddin and Cllr Padraigh Reale, who was co-opted following Conor Sheehan&#8217;s election to Dail Eireann last year.<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THERE is shock in Limerick this Wednesday lunchtime as a high-profile Labour politician quits the party she has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7518,42,1396,44,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-110620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-castletroy","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-limerick","11":"tag-limerick-city","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}