With Mairéad Farrell, Catherine Connolly and Hildegarde Naughton elected to represent Galway West last week, the 5-seat constituency has a majority of female representatives.
This is a scenario inconceivable not so long ago.
Prior to 1969, Maggie Anne Ashe was the only woman ever to contest Galway West or its predecessor, the Galway County constituency.
As a Clann na Poblachta candidate, she won 2,273 votes in 1948, having done rather better earlier as an Independent in 1944, polling 3,054.
Ashe ran a pub in Cross Street in the city centre, now the Front Door. She became a long-serving city councillor. Ashe Road in Shantalla is named for her.
Mary Byrne was an unsuccessful Fianna Fáil election candidate in 1969, as was Irene King for Aontacht Éireann in 1973.
The first woman to be elected for the constituency was Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (FF ) in a 1975 by-election. She was re-elected seven times.
Gender-wise, Galway East was a bit ahead of that, electing Brigid Hogan-O’Higgins for Fine Gael from 1961.
