ON May 1, historically known as International Workers’ Day, the Socialist Party declared it would be standing a “socialist feminist” candidate in June’s mayoral elections in Limerick.
The party announced Caitríona Ní Chatháin, a teacher, trade union activist, and leading organiser of the ROSA socialist feminist movement, as its candidate to contest the historic mayoral vote.
Declaring housing a core pillar of her campaign, Ms Ní Chatháin said that she, like many others, has been impacted by the ongoing housing crisis – something she says was a motivating factor in mayoral bid so that she could hold “the real enemy” to account.
“Last year I was served a ‘no-fault’ eviction notice after I queried an unlawful rent increase with the RTB. Without a car and no availability of affordable housing, I was facing the possibility of not being able to get to work and teach,” she said.
“It is enraging to experience how greed can impact the lives of workers and those we serve. It’s really important that we recognise and fight the real enemy, as the late Sinéad O’Connor would have said.
“It’s the super-rich and their representatives in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael who have caused the housing crisis. We must unite and fight for homes for all, rather than fight amongst ourselves over the crumbs they leave to us.”
Endorsing her party’s candidate, former TD Ruth Coppinger said “as the magnificent Limerick Soviet showed, when the working class ran the city for two weeks in 1919, it is workers who run society and who are the backbone of the economy, not big business. It would be truly historic if we elected a mayor which stood in this radical tradition and who pledged to use the position to further the interests of working people.”
“I sincerely believe that Caitríona would be that workers’ mayor on a workers’ wage.”
Ms Coppinger added that Ms Ní Chatháin, if elected, will “refuse to accept on principle” the €150,000 salary earmarked for the mayoral role, referring to it as “obscenely bloated”.
