Carol Nolan (46) is the only incumbent candidate in the three-seat Offaly constituency. The former teacher and school principal is a native of the south Co Offaly village of Cadamstown. Married to Gerard Nolan, they have two children.

She was first elected as a county councillor in 2014 as a Sinn Féin candidate. She successfully ran for a Dáil seat in 2016, again as a Sinn Féin candidate, but was suspended from the party in 2018 when she voted against the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. She resigned from the party that same year.

In 2020 she ran again for the Dáil, this time as an Independent, campaigning on rural issues, and the closure of Garda stations and post offices. She voted against the EU Pact on international protection, asylum and migration, calling it “morally and politically bankrupt”.