An election to all 32 seats on Wicklow County Council took place on 23 May 2014 as part of the 2014 Irish local elections, an increase from 24 seats at the 2009 election. In addition, the town councils of Arklow, Bray, Greystones and Wicklow were all abolished. County Wicklow was divided into five local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

Quick Facts All 32 seats on Wicklow County Council 17 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

2014 Wicklow County Council election

← 2009 23 May 2014 2019 →
All 32 seats on Wicklow County Council 17 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Party Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Sinn Féin Seats won 8 7 6 Seat change -1 +3 +4   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Green Independent Labour Seats won 1 10 0 Seat change +1 +7 -6
Area of Wicklow County Council
Council control before election Fine Gael Labour Party Fianna Fáil Council control after election Fine Gael Fianna Fáil Independent

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Independents proved to be the biggest winners in the elections, gaining 7 seats to return to the council with 10 members. Sinn Féin gained 4 additional seats on the council, leaving them with 6 councillors in total. The additional seats helped to insulate Fine Gael from significant seat losses and they remained the largest party despite losing a seat overall. Fianna Fáil gained 3 seats overall to return with 7 members and though they had more first preference votes than Fine Gael, they won 1 less seat overall. Several of the successful Independents such as Joe Behan, Christopher Fox and Jim Ruttle had former Fianna Fáil connections. The Labour Party polled disastrously in the election and were wiped out in what had been one of their former strongholds, losing all 6 seats. Outgoing councillor and outgoing chairman, Jimmy O'Shaughnessy also lost his seat in the election. O'Shaughnessy was a former Labour member. However, 2 former Labour councillors, Tom Fortune and Tommy Cullen, were returned as Independents.

It was also notable that none of the mayors of the town councils were elected. Mick Glynn (FG; Bray), Malcolm Earls (FG; Wicklow) and Peter Dempsey (Ind; Arklow) all failed to be elected, while George Jones (FG; Greystones) retired after serving over 40 years as a Town Councillor and County Councillor.

^ *: Outgoing councillor.
^ †: Outgoing councillor elected in 2009 in the Wicklow LEA for Labour; contesting both Arklow and Wicklow LEAs.

Following the elections, the Fine Gael group with 8 councillors, the Fianna Fáil group with 7 councillors and an independent technical group of 4 councillors came together to become the "official/government" side of the council, while the Sinn Féin group with 6 councillors, the Green Party councillor and an independent technical group of 5 councillors formed the "opposition" side of the council. One independent councillor refused to join either side and remained on his own.

Following the election, at the first Annual General Meeting of the council, Christopher Fox (Independent) was elected Cathaoirleach (chairman) of the council. John Ryan (Fine Gael) was elected as Leas-Cathaoirleach (Vice-chairman) of the council.

The "control" of the council was a rainbow coalition of Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Independent. The opposition side consisted of Sinn Féin/Green Party/Independent.

• †Greystones Independent Cllr Jennifer Whitmore joined the Social Democrats on 14 November 2015.
• ††Wicklow Independent Cllr Pat Kavanagh died on 17 December 2015. Her sister, Mary, was co-opted to fill the vacancy on 7 March 2016.
• †††Bray Sinn Féin Cllr John Brady was elected to the 32nd Dáil for Wicklow at the 2016 general election. Michael O'Connor was co-opted to fill the vacancy in March 2016.
• ††††Wicklow Fianna Fáil Cllr Pat Casey was elected to the 32nd Dáil for Wicklow at the 2016 general election. Gail Dunne was co-opted to fill the vacancy in March 2016.
• †††††Following an internal row with Sinn Féin TD, John Brady, three Wicklow Cllrs Oliver O'Brien (Bray), Gerry O'Neill (Greystones) and John Snell (Wicklow) were stripped of the party whip and became Independents. On 8 12 Oliver O'Brien joined Peadar Tóibín's new movement.
• †††††† Arklow Sinn Féin Cllr Mary McDonald resigned from the party and became an Independent on 10 March 2019 saying she was restricted in what she could do at Council level.

• "Wicklow County Council". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 2 June 2014.