Options are limited for Galway’s Gaza Strip

There is no love lost between Galway and Roscommon on the playing field – and, similarly, on the political front, there is very little appetite among Galway voters casting their ballot in a Roscommon-dominated constituency.

Prior to the 2016 general election, the Constituencies Commission realigned the Galway East constituency, resulting in a narrow strip stretching from Clontuskert near Ballinasloe across to an area close to Dunmore in the north.

At the time it was dubbed ‘The Gaza Strip’ by the former Ballinasloe councillor Michael Finnerty who admits to being a ‘general election junkie’.

It was particularly frustrating for voters in that part of the Roscommon-Galway constituency as none of the main parties ran a candidate, instead offering independents Michael Fitzmaurice and former FG minister Denis Naughten a free run.

Not content with that, the Constituencies Commission again produced the carving knife to add even more of the old Galway East constituency into Roscommon this time out.

Now we have the likes of Dunmore, Clonberne, Mountbellew, Ballymacward, Kilconnell, New Inn and Cappataggle transferred out of Galway East into the enlarged Roscommon-Galway constituency – and still the options for voters remain fairly limited.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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