Female fervor set to change the face of local politics

Lifestyle – Declan Tierney meets some of the new wannabe women politicians who want to tilt the ‘gender balance’ in Galway

One rather cynical French writer once remarked, “Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason”. In around six months time the face of local politics in Galway will change significantly with a whole host of new faces emerging.

And it will be marked by the fact that there will probably be more women candidates in the race for seats on both Galway County Council and Galway City Council than ever before.

The term ‘gender balance’ has been doing the rounds for the past couple of years and it has resulted in some of the main parties striving to have women candidates on their respective tickets.

The perception that local politics is dominated by publicans, part-time farmers, teachers and undertakers has been there for generations but that is set to change as this race for seats on both local authorities will also have a lot of career women standing for election.

These are also mothers of teenage, and younger, children who have decided for various reasons to take to the campaign trail in an environment dominated by men. Of the 30 members of Galway County Council at the moment, only three of them are women. There are four on Galway City Council which is a significantly better representation.

It’s convention season at the moment across the city and county and already a number of strong female candidates have emerged and there are predictions that the number of women public representatives could double after the May local elections.

Martina Kinnane lives in Clarinbridge with her husband and two teenage boys. Her family background is Fianna Fail and she is currently employed as a fundraiser with Enable Ireland.

She is entering politics for the first time although she believes she always had a political streak as her late father, Sean Harrison from Gurteen, was a strong supporter and director of elections for former TD Noel Treacy.

“I looked to go”, she admitted. “I would have gone five years ago only for the children were so young at the time. At the moment it feels so natural that I am looking forward to the campaign and meeting people on the doorsteps”.

Martina has a busy life both at work and at home, but she feels that her involvement in a lot of local organisations – working with the elderly and disadvantaged children – will compliment this if she gets elected.

“I am the daughter of a grassroots member and ever since I was taken to a number of Ard Fheises, I developed an interest in politics. I wanted to run, so I picked up the phone and nobody said ‘no’ to me which was great.

“I am here for change. I am here to hopefully improve the lives of those I hope to represent. I would not do it if I genuinely believed that I couldn’t make an impact for the area that I hope to be serving,” Martina added.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.