Libertas Ireland was a political party in Ireland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Ireland under a common banner with

Declan Ganley Declan James Ganley (born 23 July 1968) is an English-born Irish entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist. He was the founder and leader of the Irish branch of the Libertas Party. Primarily a telecommunications entrepreneur, Ganley has ...

's Libertas.eu. It shared a headquarters with Libertas.euTh
CRO
entry for the Libertas Party was: * Type: Company, * Number: 463758 * Name: The Libertas Party Limited, * Address: Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway, Ireland * Registered: 30 October 2008"Entry for the Libertas Party Limited"
, a
www.solocheck.ie

, a
www.ukdata.com
but was a national party in its own right for the purposes of Irish electoral law.

Formation

Rumours that Libertas would become a political party began as soon as the Lisbon I referendum rejected the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member s ...

,"Ganley plans to fight on in European elections"
Sunday Times, June 22, 2008 and attention eventually moved to whether Libertas would run candidates in Ireland.
, Irish Times, 13 December 2008 On 14 March 2009, Ganley held a press conference and announced that it would."Ganley launches European election bid"
, 15 March 2009 Libertas Ireland, (the Libertas national party in Ireland and a party in its own right) was founded on 29 April 2009, some months after the pan-European party was founded in 2008.

Personnel

2009 European Parliament elections

Candidates

Libertas fielded candidates in three

European Parliament constituencies Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union (EU). The European Electoral Act 2002 allows member states the choice to allocate electoral subdivisions or constituencies (, ...

in Ireland. It did not intend to field a candidate in South because Libertas had close ties with

Kathy Sinnott Kathy Sinnott (; born 29 September 1950) is a disability rights activist and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 2004 to 2009. Early life Sinnott was born in Chicago, Illinois, in ...

(

IND Ind or IND may refer to: General * Independent (politician), a politician not affiliated to any political party * Independent station, used within television program listings and the television industry for a station that is not affiliated with ...

/ EUD/ IND-DEM), an MEP for that constituency.

Campaign

At the launch of his party's 2009 European Parliament campaign, Declan Ganley encouraged voters to vote for Libertas as a protest against existing parties, said that

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

and

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

were part of a political cartel and that opinion polls that put his party at 2 per cent in the polls disagreed with Libertas own polling. Ganley said that he would step down as party leader if he failed to be elected in the North–West constituency. Simons criticised

Proinsias De Rossa Proinsias De Rossa (born 15 May 1940) is a former Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997, Leader of Democratic Left from 1992 to 1999 and Leader of the Workers' Party from 1988 to 1992. He s ...

at the launch of the EU parliament campaign, saying that he had been in the parliament for fifteen years and would be seventy next year, but she denied she was discriminating against older people. O'Malley said that Ireland should close its borders to workers from other EU countries while appearing on '' The Last Word'' on

Today FM Today FM is an Irish national commercial FM radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Audio Ireland Limited. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997, it broadcasts mostly music, with a daily news and current affairs programme. Today FM holds a l ...

.East candidate seeks block on immigrants
, Brian Kavanagh,

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

, 15 May 2009

Results

Ganley was not elected; he called for a recount in his constituency and, as a result, his official number of first preferences was reduced by 3,000 from 70,638 when it was discovered that some votes for Fiachra O'Luain has been mistakenly bundled with his. Neither Caroline Simons nor Raymond O'Malley were elected either. Kathy Sinnott also lost her seat.

European Parliament

Dissolution

In November 2009, the party was removed from the Register of Political Parties in Ireland. In June 2010, Ganley applied to the Companies Registration Office (CRO) to have the Libertas Party and the Libertas Foundation to be struck off voluntarily. The group had filed no accounts. As of 2010, the Libertas Institute remained active as a think-tank.

Notes

References

{{Historic Irish parties

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Eurosceptic parties in Ireland Political parties established in 2009 Political parties disestablished in 2009 Defunct political parties in the Republic of Ireland 2009 establishments in Ireland 2009 disestablishments in Ireland