Political World
Tweet finally reveals Fine Gael’s worst kept secret
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
Delighted to be at Fine Gael Galway West/South Mayo constituency AGM,” tweeted John O’Mahony on Monday night before thanking the other three national parliamentarians in the constituency – Sean Kyne, Brian Walsh and Hildegarde Naughton for the ‘great welcome’.
In the background we could hear the banjo music from Deliverance being played – and maybe that welcome from the two incumbent TDs and one senator was gritted teeth rather than a beaming smile.
In any instance after almost two years of deliberation and will he won’t he, O’Mahony has done the inevitable and switched constituency.
Indeed the writing has been on the wall for this move since the boundaries were redrawn and a swathe of South Mayo – and 10,000 votes – moved south to Galway West. Among the areas affected were Ballinrobe, the Neale, Garrymore, and Cong.
If O’Mahony had stayed in Mayo he would have had an uphill struggle, to put it mildly. Of the four Fine Gael candidates he had the least amount of first preference votes and took the last of the five seats.
Mayo is being reduced to a four-seater and the two strongest Fine Gael candidates are – obviously – Taoiseach Enda Kenny and that formidable vote machine Michael Ring.
Because of the new gender balance rules, it was always likely that Michelle Mulherin would get the nod over O’Mahony if a three candidate strategy was being pursued.
If you look at the other three, all are based in big towns geographically spread; Kenny is based in Castlebar, Ring is in Westport and Mulherin is in Ballina.
O’Mahony inherited the Jim Higgins territory of East and South Mayo. He lives in Ballaghdereen on the border with Roscommon and none of the towns in that area are huge: Charlestown, Ballinrobe, Shrule and Ballyhaunis.
Indeed, when Fianna Fáil lost out there, it was the candidate in that area – the late John Carthy – who lost out.
Even with three candidates, I doubt if Fine Gael can win more than two seats in Mayo.
O’Mahony was never happy about the change. Why would he be? In that Dáíl speech in 2013, he complained that as the Constituency Commission had ignored the guideline to respect county borders.
“The outcome in the case of the new Galway West constituency is anything but the sharing of a contiguous border. I have tremendous respect for people in both Mayo and Galway, as many will know, but in the case of all counties in Connacht borders have been either breached or additional territory has been added. For political reform to be effective, it must be streamlined…
“If a constituent needs assistance in dealing with an issue to do with road resurfacing or pot holes, the local councillor will deal with the problem.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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