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Insider always raises an eyebrow when bookies issue their odds on election betting - who’s a favourite, who’s not, etc - indeed, one of Ireland’s well known bookies gets RED C to carry out polling for it regularly, hence the odds that bookmaker offers reflects the results of the polls.

Where did it all go wrong is what the Fine Gael party faithful will be trying to figure out over the next few weeks as they saw their seats in the county town drop from four to two over the weekend. One man who won’t be asking that question is Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne who topped the poll with an amazing 2,921 votes, a massive 1,210 first preference votes over the quota of 1,711. From not long after the boxes were opened and spilled across the counting tables in the Royal Theatre in Castlebar early on Saturday morning, there was never any doubt that Kilcoyne was going to top the poll, it was only a matter of by how much. When he was elected on the first count, he was the first councillor in Ireland elected in this year’s local elections, but he had to wait until the early hours of Tuesday morning for the official declaration of election after the recount of the Castlebar papers had been concluded. More on that below.

“The people are angry and the top level of the party will have to accept the verdict of the people and listen to the message they are sending out.”

Fine Gael looks set to continue its current dominance of Galway County Council, but Fianna Fáil and Independents are set to have a solid election and may even narrow the gap with the governing party.

Independents, female candidates, and Fianna Fáil stand poised as the main winners when the votes for the 2014 Local Elections in Galway city are counted this weekend; but Labour is fearful it could be reduced to just two councillors in City Hall.

With three weeks to go to polling, there is much to play for across each of the three Galway city electoral wards. Poster campaigns are now in full flow and candidates are falling over each other for the affections of voters on the doorsteps.

John Mulholland and Keith Finnegan recently discussed the bookmaker’s odds for all the local election candidates across the city on Galway Bay FM.

Three of Fine Gael’s four Connemara candidates in May’s Local Elections will be women, with Mary McHugh being the latest addition to the ticket.

Rumours in Mullingar that the Labour constituency office on Bishopgate Street was going to close were quickly snuffed out this week by one of its oldest professional residents.

Consensus exists between Labour and Fianna Fáil party insiders that Sinn Féin is “certain” to win one of the six Galway City Central seats in May’s Local Elections.