Gender quota sees more females than ever across all three Galway constituencies

Galway voters will this week have an unprecedented choice of twelve female candidates looking for a Dail seat – bidding to follow in the footsteps of Maura Geoghegan Quinn, the last female TD from the county, representing Galway West.

There have been several who came close since then, including former Senator Margaret Cox who had two attempts. The closest she came was in 2002 when she was the last candidate standing without getting elected.

But now the gender quota requirement has resulted in a rather large number of female candidates in the race for election.

The one and only female TD in the Galway East constituency was Brigid Hogan O’Higgins who still has an avid interest in politics and is still a familiar face at the count centre. She resides in the Kilrickle area.

Brigid was first elected as a Fine Gael TD for the Galway South constituency at the 1957 general election. She was re-elected at the 1961 general election for the Galway East constituency and again at the 1965 general election.

After boundary changes, she was elected at the 1969 general election for Clare–Galway South, where she was returned for a fifth and final term at the 1973 general election.

Few will forget the 2011 general election count in Galway West which started on a Saturday morning and ended at 6am the following Wednesday following a full recount.

That was called by Senator Fidelma Healy Eames as she was about to be eliminated from the contest. The recount did not change anything and she was eventually eclipsed by FG party colleague Sean Kyne.

Senator Healy Eames is an independent candidate on this occasion but in that same general election was former Labour member Cllr Catherine Connolly who narrowly missed out on the fifth seat and she is now considered one of the favourites.

They are joined in Galway West by Nicola Daveron of Renua, Fianna Fail’s Cllr Mary Hoade and Senator Hildegarde Naughten of Fine Gael.

Over in Galway East there is Senator Lorraine Higgins of Labour, Cllr Anne Rabbitte of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein’s Annemarie Roche and Mairead Ni Chronin of the Greens.

Then in Roscommon-Galway Cllr Maura Hopkins of Fine Gael has a realistic chance of taking a seat while Miriam Hennessy of the greens and Ann Farrell of Renua are also in the race.