"I definitely performed beyond my expectations" - Kildare's Aontú candidate, Una O'Connor

Beaten but undefeated, Aontú's Una O'Connor is far from licking her wounds following her failure to secure a Dáil seat last weekend in Punchestown.

The former garda has cause for celebration, given that party leader Peadar Tóibín will be joined in Dáil Éireann by newly-elected colleague Paul Lawless, bringing two Aontú seats to the House for the first time.

For her part, however, O'Connor has not ruled out contesting for a council seat in the future, or indeed contesting a future general election, when that occurs.

“I feel very very satisfied indeed, I definitely performed beyond my expectations. I was hoping first of all to reach that 2% that we would need to secure government funding and I thought if I got 3%, that would be very good”, O'Connor tells Kildare Now this week.

“I ended up with 3.81%, a total of 3026 votes. It was my first foray into national politics, and I really didn't know what to expect.

“I've been in the local elections twice now, I achieved 5.04% here in the locals, and obviously it would have been a huge task to replicate that throughout the constituency, so to get 3.81% was very satisfying altogether.”

As O'Connor is quick to point out, Aontú is celebrating the fact that the party has doubled its Dáil representation, and that “thank God Peadar now has a bit of company in Leinster House.”

Ms O'Connor says that she will “certainly” be contesting for a seat on Kildare County Council in the future.

“It's another four-and-a-half years to the next council elections, so I'm going to plough on with all the things I'm involved in”, she says.

“In particular, the big issue locally around here is the school here in Prosperous, St Farnan's, it's full to the gills.

“Last year we had a lottery for school places in November, I've no doubt that was put off this year until the election was got out of the way, and I bet you within another few days you'll see another flipping lottery for school places in Prosperous.”

Asked if she was disappointed with the election results on a personal level, O'Connor admits she had stiff competition in Social Democrats candidate, Cllr Aidan Farrelly, who was ultimately elected.

“I'm not at all disappointed because it was my first foray into national politics and I was up against it here as well in Prosperous with Cllr Aidan Farrelly, from the same village as myself, but he did have the might of Catherine Murphy backing him.

“She took him all around Leixlip and Celbridge and canvassed very intensively, but he worked very hard, and credit to him.

“My plan is to press on with everything that I'm doing locally, to be more visible in the community than I already am, and to continue with everything that I'm involved in and to be ready for the next election.”