John O’Mahony to declare tonight for Galway West

Following months of speculation, John O’Mahony will tonight finally declare his intention to contest the General Election in the Galway West constituency, which now includes South Mayo.

The former double All-Ireland winning Galway senior football manager is due to address the Fine Gael South Mayo district executive of his decision at a meeting tonight in the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris.

It is understood that O’Mahony finalised his decision this week, and contacted sitting Galway West TDs Seán Kyne and Brian Walsh of his decision by phone earlier today.

He was also due to make contact with senator Hildegarde Naughton, who is likely to be on the Fine Gael ‘ticket’ in the 2016 election.

O’Mahony is currently one of four FG TDs in Mayo, which is a five seater.

Mayo, following a boundary review, is reducing to a four-seater, and O’Mahony has decided to move to Galway West/South Mayo, possibly under pressure from Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister of State Michael Ring and the party hierarchy and number crunchers.

This week, Deputy Walsh told the Tribune that he would welcome O’Mahony into the constituency.

He said the addition of O’Mahony would help the party to hold onto the FG votes in South Mayo, and boost its chances of holding onto two Dáil deputies in Galway West for the first time in the history of general elections.