Longford as a county is something of an oddity in that it has both no Fine Gael TDs and also no Longford TDs. Mr Varadkar was in town to promote the Dáil chances of local councillor for Granard Micheal Carrigy, who hopes to amend that statistic. “This is one of five counties in Ireland with no Fine Gael TD, so it’s very high up our target list. We have a top-class candidate in Micheal and I hope to see him in the Dáil in a couple of weeks,” Mr Varadkar said. In both towns, the Fine Gael leader was on friendly ground, though there were mutterings of protest out on the streets on both occasions.

Source: Irish Examiner January 17, 2020 12:00 UTC