That’s a lot of candidates for the Ireland South constituency

So, Michael McNamara, former LP TD and arguably a contrarian voice, has thrown his hat in the ring for the Ireland South constituency at the European elections. But look at the spread of candidates:

Currently three candidates are confirmed in the Ireland South constituency: Derek Blighe from Mitchelstown for Ireland First; Ross Lahive for Cork City for The Irish People; and Una McGurk, non-party, from Kenmare, Co Kerry.

Other candidates expected to run include Aontú’s Patrick Murphy; Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú; Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly and John Mullins; The Green Party’s Grace O’Sullivan; independents Graham De Barra, Mary Fitzgibbon, Eddie Punch and Mick Wallace; Irish Freedom Party’s Michael Leahy; Labour’s Niamh Hourigan; PBP-Solidarity’s Cian Prendiville; An Rabharta Glas’s Lorna Bogue; Sinn Féin’s Kathleen Funchion and Paul Gavan; and the Social Democrats’ Susan Doyle.

And the constituency itself is large. Very large:

The South constituency covers Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, and Wicklow.

I can’t help but note there are three candidates for explicitly far right groups and parties. There may be more. It will be interesting to see how matters go there and whether that multiplicity of candidates does them any good. But so many candidates. How do voters pick through that? I’d presume the big names are best positioned. But then who are the big names on the list above?