Galway West
Grealish has his cake – and eats it
Chris Elwood, the manager of Coco Café along Salthill Prom, hands Noel Grealish a brown envelope.
Independent Senator Gerald Craughwell erupts laughing. Independent Galway County Councillor Thomas Welby is sniggering and close to tears. “The Tribune would have to be here to see that,” chuckles Grealish. All above board, they stress.
It’s lunchtime Friday and the trio meet to refuel ahead of a canvass of Salthill. Grealish wants a blueberry muffin. “We’ve a strawberry and vanilla one, you’d like that,” says Mr Elwood.
Craughwell wants a pie. Any pie. “With a lash of cream,” he says.
They tear into the cakes, washed down by coffee. It’s like they’ll never eat again.
In fairness, Craughwell and Grealish have had an early start.
The Independent Galway West TD’s phone has been hopping since 3.30am when a cavalcade of Traveller caravans set up an illegal encampment at Galway Airport in the heart of his Carnmore base. There’re 20 missed calls and nine voicemails on his mobile. Locals aren’t impressed. But by late afternoon, the Traveller families have moved to City Hall.
Craughwell had an early start, too. The Salthill-native left Dublin at 6am to support Grealish on the campaign trail. “He’s just an incredibly decent man,” he says. He adds Grealish has helped the fellow Galway man since he was elected to the Seanad last year.
Leaving for Leisureland, to meet canvassers, Grealish mentions aloud he has to go to the funeral of a friend whose father passed away.
At Rockbarton Road, former mayor and Independent Galway City Councillor, Terry O’Flaherty awaits. She takes a woolly hat off and asks about her hair. “Is it okay?”
Grealish declines the offer of a hat. “They don’t recognise me with the hat on,” he says. He repeats this later when a woman in a BMW stops and summons him. “Now didn’t I tell you they know me without the hat?”
In fairness, nearly everyone he meets knows him. And those that don’t know him, instantly warm to him.
Grealish wouldn’t get as warm a welcome at home as he did on the first door. The middle-aged woman’s eyes light up when she sees him. “Oh, there’s my man,” she says, giving him a bear hug. “I thought I’d have missed you.”
He declines the offer of tea and agrees to bring her on that trip to the Dáil he’d promised before if he’s re-elected. “That wasn’t pre-arranged,” he insists.
But this is ‘Bobby Molloy country’, and so the reception for the former Progressive Democrats member is genuinely friendly.
It’s only lukewarm at one door in a leafy cul de sac, though. He won’t give you number one, says O’Flaherty.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
With half of the boxes in Galway City West tallied, the state of play in the six-seater is:
Donal Lyons (Ind) 23%
Pauline O’Reilly (Greens) 14.75%
Niall McNelis (Lab) 11.89%
John Connolly (FF) 9.86%
Pearce Flannery (FG) 9.48%
Peter Keane (FF) 7.3%
John Crowley (Soc Dems) 6.3%
Clodagh Higgins (FG) 5.9%
Salthill and Taylor’s Hill boxes being tallied now
There is a tired old cliché about people singing from ‘the same hymn sheet’ – but despite their diverse political backgrounds, it could certainly be applied in the case of Galway city’s two new TDs.
Because Fine Gael’s Deputy Hildegarde Naughten and independent TD Catherine Connolly hold common ground when it comes to a lot of issues relating to Galway city.
For example, in the aftermath of the general election they both agreed that University Hospital Galway should be moved to a greenfield site at Merlin Park. They also articulated this view on the first day of the new Dail last week.
And, separately, they were both in favour of the provision of dedicated bus lanes throughout Galway city with the acceptance that there will be no outer bypass for at least another decade. Deputy Connolly believes that the current proposal is simply “a cul-de-sac” and should never have been progressed.
Left-leaning Independent TD Catherine Connolly and right-leaning Fine Gael TD, Hildegarde Naughton, both believe UHG is at saturation point and are committed to the development of a new public hospital at the larger, more accessible site east of the city.
This, along with the promotion of public transport initiatives to help end traffic chaos in the city, is one of the common policy objectives the two new women TDs share.
They are only the second and third women TDs ever in Galway West, following in the footsteps of former Fianna Fáil minister, Máire Geoghegan Quinn.
Pressure is mounting on Galway West TD Noel Grealish to join Fianna Fail as the party attempts to be part of the next government.
The Fianna Fail organisation in the constituency are now convinced that Grealish may provide the party with the answer to winning a second seat in Galway West. And the organisation are disappointed that veteran TD Eamon O Cuiv has not delivered a second seat in the last two general elections. If Fianna Fail assume power, it is very unlikely that the Cornamona man will have a place at the front bench.
The party organisation in Galway West are now anxious that Grealish becomes part of their fabric and particularly as he is a proven vote-winner.
Grealish is part of an unofficial grouping in the Dail who are currently engaged with the two major parties with a view to forming a minority government.
The fact that the Carnmore man has been a TD since 2002, it is likely that he could be part of the front bench in the next government if he agrees to become part of the support that Fianna Fail require.
It was revealed last week that he had been approached by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin to join up but he was not to be drawn on the issue.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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