Former Galway manager set to show hand on election

The speculation is almost over – because the next couple of weeks will see former Galway football manager John O’Mahony finally declare his hand before the next election.

It is now widely expected that the Mayo man will stand in Galway West – and it is predicted that he could well take a Fine Gael seat.

Indeed, he could even eclipse the two sitting TDs in Galway West by taking a seat in the constituency. He is definitely considering the possibility.

He told the Galway City Tribune that he has no plans to get out of politics so his options are quite limited. When O’Mahony turned up for the Mayo People’s Association’s annual dinner in Galway he was given a hero’s welcome. It was an event that he was not about to miss.

Of course, that further fuelled speculation that he would be a Fine Gael candidate in the Galway West constituency.

Last year he said that he was going to make an announcement in October 2014 but circumstances, which he won’t reveal, prevented him from doing so.

But there is no doubt that he would be a strong candidate in the constituency and particularly as 10,000 votes from South Mayo are now coming into Galway West following the redrawing of the constituencies.

South Mayo voters will not be particularly enthused about voting for Galway candidates and would much sooner vote for ‘one of their own’.

There are currently four Fine Gael seats in Mayo but it has now been reduced from a five-seater to a four-seater and the party are looking at the prospect of losing two seats in the next general election.

“I will be definitely making up my mind in a couple of weeks time. I will not be putting it off for any longer,” Dep O’Mahony told the Galway City Tribune.

“There is a lot to consider. It is personally a huge decision for me to make. It is not a decision that one can make without considering all of the implications.”.

Fine Gael have two seats in Galway West at the moment and the polls show that they could relinquish one. Party sources suggest that the arrival of O’Mahony would give FG the best chance of retaining two.

Of course sitting TDs Brian Walsh and Sean Kyne would not relish the prospect of the former Galway football manager standing in Galway West – neither would Senator Hildegarde Naughton who has her own ambitions of winning a seat.