Grainne Seoige’s celebrity drew attention to the Galway West constituency last week, but it was Mairéad Farrell, Catherine Connolly and Hildegarde Naughton who stole the show.
Galway West is thought to be the first constituency in the history of the state where the first two seats went to female candidates. Sinn Féin’s Farrell topped the poll with 8,164 first preferences, a strong 1,200 votes ahead of her closest rival, John Connolly (FF ).
Farrell, aged 34, an economist from Mervue, is the first woman to ever top the poll in Galway’s political history. On a lower turn-out, she came within just 400 votes of beating outgoing veteran TD, Éamon Ó Cuív’s first preference vote when he last topped the poll in 2020.
When transfers were allocated on the 11th count, Farrell took the first seat with 10,610 votes, clearing the quota by 563. She was closely followed by Independent TD Catherine Connolly, taking the second seat on 10,578; herself clearing the quota by 531 – only 32 votes in the difference between gold and silver position.
Another strong, female candidate, Government Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton (FG ), was elected to the fourth seat alongside Barna man John Connolly, who pipped her to third spot by only 46 votes. Both candidates cleared the quota on the 14th count. John Connolly is Galway West's only brand new TD, and with a strong record in local government, it will be interesting to see how he fits in to Micheál Martin's parliamentary party.
The final, fifth seat, was a tense affair, dubbed the ‘Battle of the Noels’, as Dáil hopeful, Galway county councillor Noel Thomas (II ), doggedly chased Carnmore stalwart Noel Grealish (Ind ), who has 22 years of parliamentary electoral success behind him.
Grealish’s team were particularly worried about transfers from eliminated Fine Gael candidate, Moycullen’s Seán Kyne, going to Thomas, who hails from nearby Killannin. Neither Noel made the quota, but at 3am on Monday morning, a trickle of transfers from John Connolly and Naughton meant Grealish stayed ahead, elected with 9,649 votes, compared to Thomas’ 8,749.
The last time Grealish took the final seat in Galway West, was the first time he was elected in 2002.
Pollsters and pundits had predicted Farrell might win the fifth seat by the skin of her teeth, if she was lucky. She proved everyone wrong, spectacularly, with a determined campaign, and polled well across the vast constituency, rural and urban.
Connemara loses TD
For the first time in living memory, Connemara does not have a resident TD. Excluding the two city TDs – both Connollys – Galway does not have a TD residing west of the Corrib either.
Despite a lot of online noise nationally, neither far-right candidate in Galway polled more than 1 per cent of first preferences. Left-wing candidate, Maisie McMaster (PBP-S ), aged just 22, polled almost 2 per cent , while Aontú’s Padraig Lenihan, polled just more than 2 per cent.
The Green Party’s Pauline O’Reilly won 6 per cent of first preferences in 2020, halved to 3 per cent last week. The Greens were massacred across the country, as smaller government coalition parties tend to be, but with a discernible trend of many Galway voters ranking female candidates high up their ballots, this was a poor showing for the Green Party’s national director of elections.
Labour’s new Galway City East councillor, Helen Ogbu, passed former mayor Mike Cubbard (Ind ) on the seventh count, with a final tally of 2,622, compared to his 2,451. The Social Democrats’ gregarious city councillor, Eibhlín Seoighthe, stayed in the mix until her elimination after the 10th count, with her transfers pushing Catherine Connolly and Farrell over the line.
Gráinne Seoige (FF ) polled almost 3,000 first preferences, a very respectable haul for a complete newcomer to politics. Although derided as a “celebrity candidate”, she still finished in the top half of the table, and it remains to be seen if this defeat strengthens her resolve to represent Connemara in a future election.
Seán Kyne says he is quitting politics after his second successive Dáil defeat, so Connemara loses a senator too.
Fellow Connemaraman, Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas, made massive gains at the expense of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael across Iar Connacht. He came extremely close to unseating Noel Grealish; a politician every pundit thought safe. If the next government does not run its full five years, and an election is called, there is no doubt Councillor Thomas may have a strong hand to play.
