Senator Murphy warns decision not to add him to Fianna Fáil ticket has 'split the party right down the middle'

Roscommon senator Eugene Murphy has warned this evening that the decision not to add him to the Fianna Fáil ticket in Roscommon-Galway has “split the party right down the middle”.

Speaking to the Herald, Senator Murphy said he is "heartbroken" at the refusal by Fianna Fáil HQ to add him to the party ticket alongside Ballygar’s Dr Martin Daly, who secured the nomination at a recent selection convention.

The Scramogue senator, who lost that contest by eight votes, has spoken out publicly about the need to have a Roscommon candidate to run alongside Dr Daly.

“It’s a really heartbreaking evening for me. I think the strategy is completely wrong and the party has made a huge error of judgement and it’s going to come back to bite them,” he warned. “Not giving the Roscommon people the choice of a Roscommon candidate, and I’ve been working night and day for them, is wrong."

He pointed out there were 70,000 people living in County Roscommon "and for the first time in Fianna Fáil’s history, it has decided not to put up a Roscommon candidate".

“It's really, really concerning and worrying, and it's going to do long term damage to the party. We now have split the party right down the middle,” he said.

Senator Murphy said his phone was “alive” all evening when the news broke and people were “very disturbed by it”.

“People feel betrayed by this. There has been a huge delivery by me in this county across many issues and I have worn the Roscommon jersey all of my life. My concern now is for the people of County Roscommon and not Eugene Murphy.

“My family, my friends, my supporters now come first. They are the people that matter to me right now. It’s not the first time I have had to go through things like this with Fianna Fáil,” he said, adding he would now take some time to reflect on the decision.