{"id":612904,"date":"2026-09-03T04:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612904\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:52:09","slug":"cllr-sheehan-joins-independent-ireland-wexfordlocal-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612904\/","title":{"rendered":"Cllr Sheehan joins Independent Ireland \u2013 WexfordLocal.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2234\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/wexfordlocal.com\/michael-sheehan\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/wexfordlocal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/michael-sheehan.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"960,650\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"michael-sheehan\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/michael-sheehan.jpg\" width=\"750\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/michael-sheehan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2234\"  \/>CLLR MICHAEL SHEEHAN joins Independent Ireland Party. (File Pic; WexfordLocal.com)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Dan Walsh<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A former Fianna F\u00e1il Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council has joined the Independent Ireland Party, increasing the fledgling party\u2019s nationwide local government representation to 26 councillors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Michael Sheehan served as a Fianna F\u00e1il Councillor for New Ross from 1999 to 2024, before leaving the party prior to the 2024 General Election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New Ross man is to be appointed as Independent Ireland\u2019s spokesperson on Finance and Enterprise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cllr Sheehan was one of four candidates for Fianna F\u00e1il in Wexford in the 2020 General Election when he accrued 5.8% of first preferences, 4,366 votes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the most recent General Election, he received 1,623 first-preference votes, or 3.1% of the total, as an Independent candidate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He criticised Fianna F\u00e1il for fielding retired international soccer referee Michelle O\u2019Neill alongside Housing Minister James Browne. Mr Browne was elected, while Ms O\u2019Neill received 296 votes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy decision has not been taken lightly, but I believe now is the right time to join Independent Ireland. People are increasingly frustrated with politics and want representatives who will listen and, importantly, deliver,\u201d said Cllr Sheehan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fianna F\u00e1il has struggled in Wexford. A few months ago outgoing Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council Cllr Joe Sullivan from Gorey Kilmuckridge District resigned from the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLLR MICHAEL SHEEHAN joins Independent Ireland Party. (File Pic; WexfordLocal.com) By Dan Walsh A former Fianna F\u00e1il Cathaoirleach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-612904","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\/612904","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=612904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}