Libertas Ireland was a political party in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Ireland

European Parliament election, 2009 (Ireland)

The 2009 European Parliament election in Ireland was the Irish component of the 2009 European Parliament election and was held on Friday, 5 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections...

 under a common banner with Declan Ganley

Declan Ganley

Declan James Ganley is a British-born Irish citizen, entrepreneur, businessman and political activist. He is founder and chairman of a political party, Libertas with pan-European ambitions...

's Libertas.eu

Libertas.eu

Libertas is a political party founded by Declan Ganley that took part in the European Parliament election, 2009 in several member states of the European Union.-Preamble:...

. It shared a headquarters with Libertas.euThe 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

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

Treaty of Lisbon

The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....

, and attention eventually moved to whether Libertas would run candidates in Ireland. On 14 March 2009 Ganley held a press conference and announced that it would. 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

Name	Position
John McGuirk	Authenticating Officer
Sean Ganley	Authenticating Officer
Norrie Keane	Authenticating Officer
Eilis Mulroy	Authenticating Officer

Candidates

Libertas fielded candidates in three European Parliament constituencies

European Parliament constituency

Members of the European Parliament are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union , divided into constituencies....

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

Kathy Sinnott

Kathy Sinnott is a disability rights campaigner and a former politician. She represented the South constituency in Ireland in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009....

 (IND

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

/EUD

EUDemocrats

The EUDemocrats – Alliance for a Europe of Democracies – is a eurorealist alliance of parties and movements from 15 European countries. It operates as a transnational party at a European level , according to Regulation No 2004/2003...

/IND-DEM), an MEP

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 for that constituency.

Name	Constituency European Parliament constituency Members of the European Parliament are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union , divided into constituencies....	Notes
Declan Ganley Declan Ganley Declan James Ganley is a British-born Irish citizen, entrepreneur, businessman and political activist. He is founder and chairman of a political party, Libertas with pan-European ambitions...	North–West
Caroline Simons	Dublin Dublin (European Parliament constituency) Dublin is a constituency of the European Parliament in Ireland. It elects 3 Members of the European Parliament using the single transferable vote form of proportional representation .-History and boundaries:...	Worked with Libertas in its campaign against the Treaty of Lisbon Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....  and was legal adviser to the Pro-Life Campaign.
Raymond O'Malley	East	Former deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association Irish Farmers' Association The Irish Farmers' Association is a national organisation to represent the interests of all sectors of farming in the Republic of Ireland... .

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

Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...

 and Fine Gael

Fine Gael

Fine Gael is a centre-right to centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the single largest party in Ireland in the Oireachtas, in local government, and in terms of Members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of over 35,000...

 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

Proinsias De Rossa is an Irish Labour Party politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency. He a former President of the Workers' Party and subsequently leader of Democratic Left, and later, a senior member of the Labour Party. He was Minister for Social Welfare from...

 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

The Last Word (radio show)

The Last Word is an Irish radio news review show hosted by Matt Cooper on Today FM on weekday evenings. Eamon Dunphy originally hosted the show but stepped down in November 2002.Kevin Myers was a regular stand-in presenter in the early years of the show....

on Today FM

Today FM

Radio Ireland Ltd, trading as 100-102 Today FM is an Irish commercial FM radio station which is available nationally. The station, which commenced broadcasting on Saint Patrick's Day in 1997, can be received nationally and carries a mix of music and talk...

.

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.

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. The Libertas Institute remains active as a think-tank.