Kildare North (Dáil constituency)

Kildare North is a parliamentary constituency represented in Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish parliament or Oireachtas. The constituency elects five deputies (Teachtaí Dála, commonly known as TDs) on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Kildare North
Dáil constituency
Location of Kildare North within Ireland
Interactive map of constituency boundaries since the 2024 general election
Major settlements	Celbridge Clane Kilcock Leixlip Maynooth Naas
Current constituency
Created	1997
Seats	3 (1997–2007) 4 (2007–2024) 5 (2024–)
TDs	Réada Cronin (SF)   Aidan Farrelly (SD)   James Lawless (FF)   Joe Neville (FG)   Naoise Ó Cearúil (FF)
Local government area	County Kildare
Created from	Kildare
EP constituency	Midlands–North-West

History and boundaries

The constituency was created at the 1997 general election, when the former 5-seat Kildare constituency was divided into Kildare North and Kildare South. At the 1997 and 2002 elections, Kildare North was a 3-seat constituency, but it was allocated an extra seat at the 2007 general election. The constituency spans the more densely populated north-eastern corner of County Kildare, taking in the towns of Celbridge, Clane, Leixlip, Kilcock, Maynooth and Naas.

The Constituency Review Report 2023 of the Electoral Commission recommended that at the next general election, Kildare North be increased to a five-seat constituency with the transfer of territory from Kildare South.^[1]

The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2023 defines the constituency as:^[2]

"In the county of Kildare, the electoral divisions of:

Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1;

Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Dunfierth in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2;

Bodenstown, Clane, Carragh, Donore, Downings, Kill, Killashee, Kilteel, Ladytown, Naas Rural, Newtown, Oughterard, Rathmore, Timahoe North, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1;

and Naas Urban."

Changes to the Kildare North constituency 1997–present

Years	TDs	Boundaries	Notes
1997–2002	3	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[3] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilrainy, Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2; Bodenstown, Clane, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Oughterard, Rathmore, Timahoe North, in the former Rural District of Naas; and the urban district of Naas.	Created from Kildare[4]
2002–2007	3	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[5] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Bodenstown, Clane, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Oughterard, Rathmore, Timahoe North, in the former Rural District of Naas; and the urban district of Naas.	Transfer to Kildare South of[6] Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilrainy, Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2.
2007–2011	4	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[7] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilrainy, Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2; Bodenstown, Clane, Downings, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Oughterard, Rathmore, Robertstown, Timahoe North, Timahoe South, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1; and the town of Naas.	Transfer from Kildare South of[8] Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilrainy, Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2, and Downings, Robertstown, and Timahoe South, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1.
2011–2016	4	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[9] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilpatrick, Kilrainy, Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2; Bodenstown, Clane, Downings, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Newtown, Oughterard, Rathmore, Robertstown, Timahoe North, Timahoe South, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1; and the town of Naas.	Transfer from Kildare South of[10] Kilpatrick, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2, and Newtown, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1.
2016–2020	4	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[11] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Carbury, Carrick, Drehid, Dunfierth, Kilrainy, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2; Bodenstown, Clane, Downings, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Newtown, Oughterard, Rathmore, Timahoe North, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1; and the town of Naas.	Transfer to Kildare South of[12] Kilpatrick and Windmill Cross, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2, and Robertstown and Timahoe South, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1.
2020–	4	In County Kildare, the electoral divisions of[13] Balraheen, Celbridge, Cloncurry, Donadea, Donaghcumper, Kilcock, Leixlip, Maynooth, Straffan, in the former Rural District of Celbridge No. 1; Ballynadrumny, Cadamstown, Dunfierth, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2; Bodenstown, Clane, Downings, Kill, Kilteel, Naas Rural, Newtown, Oughterard, Rathmore, Timahoe North, in the former Rural District of Naas No. 1; and Naas Urban.	Transfer to Kildare South of[14] Carbury, Carrick, Drehid and Kilrainy, in the former Rural District of Edenderry No. 2.

TDs

Teachtaí Dála (TDs) for Kildare North 1997–
Key to parties   FF = Fianna Fáil   FG = Fine Gael   Ind = Independent   Lab = Labour   SD = Social Democrats   SF = Sinn Féin
Dáil	Election	Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)		Deputy (Party)
28th	1997[15]		Emmet Stagg (Lab)		Charlie McCreevy (FF)		Bernard Durkan (FG)	3 seats until 2007
29th	2002[16]
	2005 by-election[17]				Catherine Murphy (Ind)
30th	2007[18]				Áine Brady (FF)				Michael Fitzpatrick (FF)	4 seats until 2024
31st	2011[19]				Catherine Murphy (Ind)				Anthony Lawlor (FG)
32nd	2016[20]		Frank O'Rourke (FF)		Catherine Murphy (SD)				James Lawless (FF)
33rd	2020[21]		Réada Cronin (SF)
34th	2024[22]				Aidan Farrelly (SD)		Joe Neville (FG)				Naoise Ó Cearúil (FF)

Note: The columns in this table are used only for presentational purposes, and no significance should be attached to the order of columns. For details of the order in which seats were won at each election, see the detailed results of that election.

Elections

^ *: Outgoing TD

2024 general election

2024 general election: Kildare North^[22][23]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	Fianna Fáil	James Lawless[*]	15.3	8,734	8,747	8,758	8,793	8,822	9,117	9,323	10,007
	Social Democrats	Aidan Farrelly	13.3	7,611	7,635	8,222	8,348	8,420	8,934	9,207	9,338	9,380	11,118
	Sinn Féin	Réada Cronin[*]	11.9	6,806	6,843	6,997	7,927	8,046	8,123	8,531	8,580	8,590	8,930	9,233	10,381
	Fianna Fáil	Naoise Ó Cearúil	10.3	5,872	5,889	5,901	5,924	5,972	6,099	6,313	6,418	6,497	7,227	7,524	8,444
	Fine Gael	Joe Neville	9.7	5,533	5,535	5,548	5,564	5,594	5,762	5,883	7,197	7,326	7,727	7,993	8,641
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	8.1	4,632	4,640	4,643	4,662	4,698	4,828	4,921	5,558	5,648	6,036	6,201	6,881
	Labour	Angela Feeney	5.8	3,337	3,358	3,439	3,492	3,528	3,884	4,025	4,180	4,213
	Fine Gael	Evie Sammon	5.4	3,111	3,117	3,128	3,137	3,144	3,339	3,410
	Independent	Bill Clear	5.1	2,906	2,961	3,027	3,068	3,352	3,541	4,373	4,641	4,760	5,096	5,458
	Aontú	Una O'Connor	3.8	2,174	2,283	2,324	2,356	2,973	3,026
	Green	Vincent P. Martin	3.6	2,059	2,063	2,115	2,138	2,162
	Irish Freedom	Gerry Waters	2.2	1,254	1,494	1,519	1,535
	Sinn Féin	Caroline Hogan	2.2	1,244	1,261	1,365
	PBP–Solidarity	Leah Whelan[a]	2.0	1,156	1,175
	The Irish People	Avril Corcoran	0.9	533
	Centre Party	Sean Gill	0.1	67
Electorate: 95,055   Valid: 57,029   Spoilt: 357 (0.6%)   Quota: 9,505   Turnout: 57,386 (60.4%)

1. Whelan is a member of Solidarity.

2020 general election

2020 general election: Kildare North^[21][24][25]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Social Democrats	Catherine Murphy[*]	19.3	9,808	10,180	11,008
	Sinn Féin	Réada Cronin	17.1	8,705	9,192	9,508	9,623	9,732	11,079
	Fianna Fáil	James Lawless[*]	13.8	7,029	7,146	7,357	7,417	7,909	9,357
	Fianna Fáil	Frank O'Rourke[*]	12.4	6,336	6,596	6,945	7,035	7,238	7,956
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	10.7	5,447	5,522	5,910	6,006	8,521	10,258
	Green	Vincent P. Martin	10.0	5,100	5,473	5,901	6,211	6,674
	Fine Gael	Anthony Lawlor	7.1	3,621	3,693	3,871	3,920
	Labour	Emmet Stagg	5.4	2,751	2,853
	Renua	Séamus Ó Riain	1.9	967
	Solidarity–PBP	Paul Mahon[a]	1.7	861
	Independent	David Monaghan	0.4	197
	Independent	Wayne Swords	0.2	123
Electorate: 81,884   Valid: 50,945   Spoilt: 382 (0.7%)   Quota: 10,190   Turnout: 51,327 (62.7%)

1. Mahon was a member of People Before Profit.

2016 general election

2016 general election: Kildare North^[26][27][20]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	Social Democrats	Catherine Murphy[*]	22.7	11,108
	Fianna Fáil	James Lawless	15.3	7,461	7,592	7,696	7,737	7,919	8,003	8,256	8,850	9,444
	Fianna Fáil	Frank O'Rourke	12.9	6,341	6,486	6,528	6,562	6,711	6,879	7,138	7,684	8,479
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	12.6	6,147	6,268	6,302	6,322	6,472	6,531	6,740	6,974	8,890
	Fine Gael	Anthony Lawlor[*]	11.1	5,406	5,490	5,544	5,572	5,714	5,767	6,046	6,213	7,402
	Labour	Emmet Stagg[*]	8.4	4,087	4,288	4,349	4,408	4,488	4,632	5,181	5,775
	Sinn Féin	Réada Cronin	6.5	3,205	3,323	3,390	3,621	3,708	4,146	4,497
	Green	Maebh Ní Fhallúin	3.0	1,485	1,649	1,715	1,804	2,020	2,419
	Independent	Brendan Young	2.4	1,200	1,323	1,467	1,737	1,858
	Renua	Shane Fitzgerald	2.0	994	1,086	1,154	1,236
	AAA–PBP	Ashling Merriman	1.6	781	873	943
	Independent	Michael Beirne	0.7	372	389
	Independent	Gerard Dunne	0.5	249	261
	Independent	Elizabeth O'Sullivan	0.2	99	119
Electorate: 77,609   Valid: 48,935   Spoilt: 291 (0.6%)   Quota: 9,788   Turnout: 49,226 (63.4%)

2011 general election

2011 general election: Kildare North^[28][19]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	19.9	10,168	10,420
	Labour	Emmet Stagg[*]	19.0	9,718	9,976	10,264
	Independent	Catherine Murphy	13.5	6,911	7,474	7,696	8,716	11,639
	Fine Gael	Anthony Lawlor	13.4	6,882	7,074	7,283	7,667	9,088
	Labour	John McGinley	10.3	5,261	5,489	5,590	6,449
	Fianna Fáil	Áine Brady[*]	9.3	4,777	4,910	6,627	6,821	7,288
	Sinn Féin	Martin Kelly	5.7	2,896	3,043	3,111
	Fianna Fáil	Michael Fitzpatrick[*]	5.2	2,659	2,714
	Green	Shane Fitzgerald	1.8	905
	Independent	Eric Doyle-Higgins	0.8	423
	Independent	Michael Beirne	0.8	422
	Independent	Bart Murphy	0.4	200
Electorate: 76,773   Valid: 51,222   Spoilt: 388 (0.8%)   Quota: 10,245   Turnout: 51,610 (67.2%)

2007 general election

2007 general election: Kildare North^[18]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Fianna Fáil	Áine Brady	24.9	11,245
	Labour	Emmet Stagg[*]	17.4	7,882	8,063	8,107	8,468	9,220
	Fianna Fáil	Michael Fitzpatrick	14.6	6,606	8,113	8,151	8,817	9,097
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	11.8	5,340	5,427	5,471	5,663	5,912	9,229
	Independent	Catherine Murphy[*]	11.5	5,188	5,339	5,474	5,881	6,733	7,652
	Fine Gael	Darren Scully	9.4	4,250	4,306	4,332	4,489	4,832
	Green	Shane Fitzgerald	4.9	2,215	2,289	2,342	2,668
	Sinn Féin	Cristin McCauley	2.4	1,103	1,135	1,154
	Progressive Democrats	Jeff Aherne	2.1	983	1,083	1,103
	Independent	John Corish	0.5	234	244
	Independent	Gerry Browne	0.3	145	153
Electorate: 71,311   Valid: 45,191   Spoilt: 232 (0.5%)   Quota: 9,039   Turnout: 45,423 (63.7%)

2005 by-election

Fianna Fáil TD Charlie McCreevy was appointed as a European Commissioner on 22 November 2004.^[29] A writ of election to fill the vacancy was moved on 15 February 2005.^[30] The by-election was held on 11 March 2005.^[31]

2005 by-election: Kildare North^[17]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fianna Fáil	Áine Brady	24.5	6,201	6,255	7,265	8,133	9,818
	Independent	Catherine Murphy	23.6	5,985	6,189	7,176	8,809	12,256
	Fine Gael	Darren Scully	18.3	4,630	4,660	5,382	7,421
	Labour	Paddy MacNamara	17.8	4,507	4,545	5,199
	Progressive Democrats	Kate Walsh	7.9	2,006	2,023
	Green	J. J. Power	6.1	1,547	1,621
	Independent	Gerry Browne	0.9	226
	Independent	Seanán Ó Coistín	0.8	211
Electorate: 65,080   Valid: 25,313   Spoilt: 211 (0.8%)   Quota: 12,657   Turnout: 25,524 (39.2%)

2002 general election

2002 general election: Kildare North^[16]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fianna Fáil	Charlie McCreevy[*]	27.5	9,082
	Labour	Emmet Stagg[*]	21.4	7,051	7,168	8,005	9,472
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	17.5	5,786	5,859	6,177	7,341	8,025
	Fianna Fáil	Paul Kelly	15.7	5,168	5,681	5,923	7,382	7,890
	Progressive Democrats	Kate Walsh	11.9	3,919	4,027	4,473
	Green	Anne Kelly McCormack	6.0	1,974	1,999
Electorate: 60,094   Valid: 32,980   Spoilt: 291 (0.9%)   Quota: 8,246   Turnout: 33,271 (55.4%)

1997 general election

1997 general election: Kildare North^[15][32]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Fianna Fáil	Charlie McCreevy[*]	21.9	6,905	7,055	7,152	8,156
	Fine Gael	Bernard Durkan[*]	21.2	6,653	6,804	7,932
	Labour	Emmet Stagg[*]	19.0	5,964	6,255	6,445	6,721	8,952
	Fianna Fáil	Paul Kelly	12.9	4,039	4,160	4,197	4,879	5,582
	Democratic Left	Catherine Murphy	8.8	2,762	3,067	3,204	3,392
	Progressive Democrats	Timmy Conway	6.7	2,101	2,252	2,351
	Fine Gael	Mary French	5.0	1,569	1,719
	Green	Seán English	4.5	1,403
Electorate: 50,957   Valid: 31,396   Spoilt: 295 (0.9%)   Quota: 7,850   Turnout: 31,691 (60.5%)

See also

• Elections in the Republic of Ireland
• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• List of Dáil by-elections
• List of political parties in the Republic of Ireland