The Fianna Fáíl faithful will meet in Salthill this weekend to select their candidate for the Galway West by-election.
Fianna Fail leader, Taoiseach Micheal Martin, is expected to schedule the election to fill Catherine Connolly’s empty Dail seat for maximum advantage, with polling day likely to fall on Friday, May 22, handily enough a week after his party’s 100th anniversary celebrations at Fianna Fáil’s 2026 Ard Fheis, in Dublin, on Friday, May 15.
Experienced Galway city councillor Alan Cheevers is understood to be the party leadership’s preferred candidate for the Galway West by-election, but with the Jim Gavin and Gráinne Seoige selection choices still rippling through ranks of the Soldiers of Destiny, insiders suggest the party’s Mount Street HQ is remaining at arms’ length from the Galway convention, to be held in the Galway Bay Hotel on Sunday.
Mayo TD, Dara Calleary, Minister for Rural and Community Development, and the Gaeltacht, will chair the selection process, while Micheál Martin is understood to have canvassed opinion from members across the West on Galway politics.
Cheevers is a popular councillor in the eastern suburbs of Galway city, and could command a sizeable vote if he can combine that rapport with Fianna Fail’s traditional support base across the western half of the vast constituency. This was well marshalled in 2024 by John Connolly TD, who retained much of Éamon Ó Cuív’s Connemara vote, and added city boxes too.
Galway county councillor Cillian Keane has been putting the spade work in with the estimated 350 Fianna Fáil Galway delegates who may vote on Sunday. The first-term councillor from Maree, who represents Oranmore-Athenry, has youth on his side, and would certainly stand out in a field of mostly middle-aged candidates, with the exception of Aontú’s Orla Nugent, the Social Democrats’ Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich, and People Before Profit’s Denman Rooke.
It is the delegates’ votes that count, and Keane is probably the party members’ favourite at time of going to press, according to several members who spoke to the Advertiser.
However Galway county councillor Máirtín Lee is the dark horse. The Lettermore man represents Conamara South, and has been mentioned by party members as a potential Dáil candidate for some time. The native Irish speaker is well regarded among many Fianna Fáil stalwarts across Galway, and comes from a distinctly republican background, which his former party and constituency colleague, but now Independent Ireland by-election candidate, Councillor Noel Thomas, has not leveraged.
All three candidates are understood to have sought advice from the party’s Galway grandee, Eamon O Cuiv, who told RTÉ last week he felt Fianna Fáil was leaving it late to declare a candidate.
Whoever is chosen on Sunday will become the 12th candidate for Galway West, which comprises Sheila Garrity (Ind ), Councillor Mike Cubbard (Ind ), Councillor Thomas Welby (Ind ), Senator Seán Kyne (FG ), Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich (SD ), Niall Murphy (GP ), Denman Rooke (PBP ), Orla Nugent (Aú ), Mark Lohan (SF ), Noel Thomas (II ), and Helen Ogbu (Lab ).
