Voters in Longford town will have the first opportunity in June to elect a member of the Travelling community to the urban district council.
Ms Mary Stokes, who for many years has been the voice of the Irish Travellers' Movement in the town, has decided to run for a council seat.
If elected, Ms Stokes will join Ms Ellen Mongan, a member of the Travelling community from Tuam, in the political life of the State. Ms Mongan was elected to Tuam Town Commissioners some years ago.
Two weeks ago, Ms Stokes indicated to the Longford Leader that she was under pressure to stand for election and this week she declared her intention to run.
"I have decided to run because people had been asking me and people want me to go for election. I was going to wait but the next general elections are too far away."
Ms Stokes said she will be running as an Independent candidate, adding that her priority was to get a good election campaign going.
As with most candidates, Ms Stokes is concerned about how much a campaign will cost and has thought carefully about financing.
"The campaign will be run on a very tight budget but I am lucky that I have a large extended family who have promised me a lot of help.
"I am not doing it for myself. I am doing it for the Travellers of Longford. Maybe people will say I am naive but I hope that we can do something to bring Travellers and settled people together and that Travellers can take their proper place in society."
One of her main issues will be that of discrimination against her people, especially when in gaining access to bars for a night out or hotels for a wedding reception.
"I don't like harping on about it but when you do go out, you would like to have the same rights as the settled community. Going back 10 years, there was a far better relationship between Travellers and publicans in Longford."
She said that while she would be running as an Independent, she expected a lot of settled people who had asked her to run to vote for her.