Eddie Fitzpatrick poised for return to Fianna Fáil

Seven months after he resigned from Fianna Fáil to run as an Independent in the 2024 general election, veteran Edenderry area councillor Eddie Fitzpatrick is poised for a return to the party he first joined in 2011.

“I have sent a letter to the General Secretary of the party, and my application will have to go before a committee, so I am awaiting the outcome of that process, but I would be hopeful,” Cllr Fitzpatrick told the Offaly Independent this week.

The move to have him reinstated to the party was initiated by Edenderry FF Cumann at a recent meeting where Robert McDermott requested a letter be sent to the Executive of Offaly Fianna Fáil urging them to start the process of having Cllr Fitzpatrick readmitted to the party. The request received unanimous support.

“I was, of course, aware that moves were being made to have me reinstated to Fianna Fáil and I was in favour of it,” he says, clarifiying that “even though I ran as an Independent I never really changed my colours.” Based in Cloneyhurke, just outside Portarlington, and a member of Offaly County Council since 2004, Eddie Fitzpatrick resigned from Fianna Fáil last October in the wake of the decision to select Rhode-based Cllr Clare Murray to contest the general election alongside Tony McCormack, who subsequently took the party seat previously held by Barry Cowen before his election as an MEP.

Having failed to secure the nomination at the party's selection convention, Fitzpatrick was hopeful of being added to the ticket for the general election after narrowly losing out on securing a second seat in Laois/Offaly in 2016 by a mere 170 votes.

Despite the fact that he accused Fianna Fáil headquarters of “completely overlooking” him when they selected Claire Murray, Cllr Fitzpatrick said a lot of his canvassers and supporters for his run as an Independent last November were “Fianna Fáil people” and he bore “no ill-will whatsoever” towards the grassroots members.

“It's a bit like a football game, you are disappointed to lose, but you get up, dust yourself off and go again, and politics is a bit like that,” he says. “I have the full support of all the councillors and myself and Cllr Murray have a great relationship, there is no bad feeling so now it's up to party HQ to decide on my application."

Reflecting on his disappointing general election run as an Independent, which saw him secure less than 3,000 first-preference votes, Cllr Fitzpatrick admits that he probably would have performed better if he had “stayed with Fianna Fáil” and been selected to run, as most of the votes he got were “Fianna Fail votes anyway” with the bulk of them transferring to Tony McCormack.

After two tilts at securing a Dáil seat, first in 2011 as an Independent and then in 2016 on the FF ticket, Eddie Fitzpatrick says that door is “now closed” and he will not contest nationally again.

He plans to run in the next local elections, after which he says he will “probably call it a day” adding: “I don't want to spend the rest of my life in politics, you can stay too long.”