Party political landscape has altered for good in Galway

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

In the maelstrom of the past six months, it’s hardly a surprise that the trends thrown up by the general election have been overlooked. Back then it was all about health and housing, before Covid-19 left us with a totally different type of circumstances.

According to the theory propagated by some, if there were an election campaign to be held in the morning, the result would be markedly different.

In February, Sinn Féin benefitted because people wanted change – and they did not see Fianna Fáil as representing that.

But if you think that spike was a once-off, you would be mistaken. There is no party better at consolidating its gains.

Unless Fianna Fáil begins to get its act together in a coherent way, Sinn Féin is going to become the dominant party in the Republican tradition.

That said, elections have become increasingly fickle. The old loyalty to the two traditional parties is beginning to dissolve.

As recent elections show, the fortunes of politicians and parties can go up and down like the dreaded XLR8 ride in the Fun Fair at Leisureland.

There are two and a half constituencies in Galway, but Roscommon-Galway is a new constituency and it is therefore hard to glean long-term patterns.

The other two constituencies have been chopped and changed (Galway East has lost a seat, while Galway West has had a fair swathe of South Mayo thrown in) but they still give a stronger basis for analysis.

And what is abundantly clear is the two traditional parties are in long term decline.

Fianna Fáil dominated Galway West until the last decade. It secured 40 per cent of the vote in 2002 and still retained 37 per cent in 2007, when the party won a third term in government.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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