{"id":449476,"date":"2026-05-15T02:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/449476\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T02:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:02:11","slug":"poll-shows-sinn-feins-janice-boylan-leading-in-dublin-central-byelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/449476\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll shows Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Janice Boylan leading in Dublin Central byelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Janice Boylan leads the byelection race in Dublin Central, with Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats is strongly positioned to benefit from transfers in later counts, according to an opinion poll in the constituency for The Irish Times and TG4 by Ipsos B&A.<\/a><\/p>\n

Veteran criminal Gerry Hutch is running in third place. Garda\u00ed in court have described Hutch as the figurehead of the Hutch crime gang involved in the Kinahan-Hutch feud.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old father of five, who has for years lived mostly in Lanzarote, is under investigation in Spain where he is suspected of being the leader of an international money laundering group.<\/p>\n

Ray McAdam of Fine Gael is in fourth position, the poll finds.<\/p>\n

There is bad news for Fianna F\u00e1il, whose candidate, John Stephens, is failing to make an impression. The poll was carried out in the constituency before the controversy over former taoiseach Bertie Ahern\u2019s remarks about immigrants this week.<\/p>\n

The video shows a canvasser calling Ahern over to a doorstep to speak to a woman who \u201cwants to say hello\u201d.<\/p>\n

She raised concerns about \u201cglobalism\u201d and the \u201chordes of foreigners coming into our country\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked about Muslim people, Ahern said he does not \u201cworry about this generation\u201d, but he does worry about the \u201cnext generation and the kids growing up\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s when I think the problem will be. I said this to [justice minister] Jim O\u2019Callaghan. That\u2019s where the problem comes,” Ahern said.<\/p>\n

The woman also told Ahern that she was also concerned about transgender issues and hate speech laws.<\/p>\n

She then told him that she had recorded him and was going to post it on social media, because she believed it was \u201cimportant that you’ve said that you disagree with Jim O\u2019Callaghan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ahern denied that he had disagreed with O\u2019Callaghan, as the woman accused him of \u201cnot sticking up for the Irish\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dublin Central constituency, Daniel Ennis (Social Democrats) above, makes his speech to Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) with (LtoR) Candidate Gerard Hutch (Independent) and candidate Ruth O\u2019Dea (The Labour Party) listening. Photo: Sam Boal\/Collins Photos<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Government<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Government should publish AG advice on Occupied Territories Bill, TD says<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The findings of the poll on first preference votes are as follows: Janice Boylan (Sinn F\u00e9in) 21 per cent; Daniel Ennis (Social Democrats) 18 per cent; Gerry Hutch (Independent) 14 per cent; Ray McAdam (Fine Gael) 13 per cent; Janet Horner (Greens) 8 per cent; Malachy Steenson (Independent) 7 per cent; Ruth O\u2019Dea (Labour) 6 per cent; John Stephens (Fianna F\u00e1il) 4 per cent; Eoghan \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in (People Before Profit) 3 per cent.<\/p>\n

The remaining candidates attracted 1 per cent support or less.<\/p>\n

Ennis is expected to be in a position to pick up left-wing transfers from the Greens, Labour and People Before Profit. He will also hope that Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il transfers will go to him, rather than Sinn F\u00e9in. If so, it will leave Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Boylan short of transfers in the later counts.<\/p>\n

The cost of living is the most important issue for the constituency, nominated by a third (33 per cent) of respondents. The next most important issue is house prices (24 per cent), while the cost of renting was nominated as the most important issue by 11 per cent. Immigration was mentioned by 12 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Janice Boylan leads the byelection race in Dublin Central, with Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-449476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449476","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=449476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}