A senior organiser of Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign will announce her candidacy for this year’s Galway West by-election this weekend.
Sheila Garrity, convener of the Galway branch of the 2025 Connolly Presidential Campaign, intends to retain the seat vacated by the former Claddagh-based TD’s election to the Áras in November.
Garrity, a long-time academic at the University of Galway, will officially launch her by-election campaign at Busker Browne’s pub this Sunday, January 18, from 4pm. Her website, GarrityForGalway.ie has yet to go live at time of print.
Last weekend, city councillor Eibhlín Seoighthe – who was widely tipped to run on behalf of Galway’s left-wing Connolly supporters, and to confirm her candidacy after Christmas – announced she had decided not to run. She added that she remained “deeply committed to progressive politics”.
Garrity, who told the Advertiser in November that she would not run for office because of a new job offer in Dublin, had been identified as a potential candidate by media observers when she delivered a powerful speech in defence of Catherine Connolly’s values at a post-presidential election function in Salthill last year.
“For over 20 years, I’ve worked alongside communities, volunteers, and local activists to support the causes, campaigns and candidates that reflect the values I believe in,” Garrity said this week.
“I’m stepping forward now, for the first time, as a candidate, because I want to continue that work – directly, openly, and with the people of Galway West at the centre”.
She told the Advertiser that watching Kiwi prime minister Jacinda Ardern on The Graham Norton Show over Christmas was the final push she needed to decide to run.
“She said it is now more than ever that we need ‘good people’ to enter politics because of all the nastiness in media and government. Because if we don’t, we will capitulate to the [negative] shift that entails,” Garrity said.
“My priority is simple: the needs of the people of Galway West come first… As an independent candidate, I am not beholden to a political party, or other vested interests. I only answer to the people of Galway West, and I will fight to improve the quality of life for all those who call Galway West home.”
Toronto-born Garrity has lived in Knocknacarra for 25 years. Her parents hail from Loughrea and Dublin. She is married to Jim, and they have raised five children in Galway city. They have two grandchildren.
A by-election must be held in Galway West before May 11, to fill the empty seat in the five-seat constituency vacated by Catherine Connolly’s election to the presidency.
At President Connolly’s Galway city inauguration party in Busker Browne’s pub last November, Garrity publicly invited supporters to join a new leftist movement in Galway called Tonn na Clé. Her speech heavily hinted that it would support the former Social Democrat, Galway city councillor Seoighthe, as its candidate to replace Catherine Connolly in the Dáil.
At the same event, Garrity ruled herself out as a candidate, as she has accepted a new academic job in Dublin City University’s School of Language, Literacy & Early Childhood Education. She is currently commuting between Galway and Dublin, and intends to canvass and hold events here at weekends.
So far, former city councillor Niall Murphy (GP ), and current county councillors Noel Thomas (II ) and Thomas Welby (Ind ), have also confirmed their intentions to stand in Galway West. They wish to join sitting TDs Mairéad Farrell (SF ), Hildegarde Naughton (FG ), Noel Grealish (RIG ), and John Connolly (FF ).
The Labour Party is expected to confirm city councillor Helen Ogbu as its by-election candidate at a scheduled selection convention next week. She is heavily backed by the party’s leadership, and local activists. Mayor of the City of Galway, Mike Cubbard, said he is currently finalising details and personnel, before formally announcing his intention to run soon.
Senator Seán Kyne is known to be gunning for the Fine Gael nomination. Four potential candidates may contest a convention for Fianna Fáil. Sinn Féin will hold a selection convention within weeks, and party insiders say there are, at present, also four aspiring candidates.
