Mairead McGuinness with local TD Peter Fitzpatrick
Ardee woman Mairead McGuinness is odds-on to retain her European seat in Friday’s elections, according to the results of a new Ipsos MRBI opinion poll published today in the Irish Times.
The poll found that the former Ear to the Ground presenter and Fine Gael candidate had 18% support.
It also predicts that Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy will join her in Europe as he has been tipped to take 15% of the vote.
The two remaining seats in the Midlands North-West constituency are then likely to go to Fianna Fáil’s Pat the Cope Gallagher and independent Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, who both took 12% each.
Their biggest challengers are Marian Harkin (10%), Lorraine Higgins (8%) and Thomas Byrne (8%).
That means that local candidates Mark Dearey of the Green Party (3%) and independent Mark Fitzsimons are unlikely to feature in the overall shake-up, with the latter taking less than half a percent of the vote in the opinion poll, which covered 150 sampling points throughout all constituencies in the Midlands North-West area.
Talk of the Town 
They look very well together in the picture. Hope they keep working hard in their respective posts and focus well on the ball as always.