McNelis aims to reclaim the Labour crown
Galway West was once a safe bet for the Labour Party. The seat won by Michael D Higgins in 1987 was held until 2016, with Derek Nolan its guardian from 2011 onwards.
Amid a nationwide backlash against the party which spent five years as the coalition partner of Fine Gael, it was lost.
This time around, Cllr Níall McNelis – a former Mayor of Galway City and city councillor of eleven years – is attempting to reclaim some ground for the Labour Party – hoping, as he says to numerous residents on a canvass in Moycullen, that his party’s time on “the bold step” has come to an end.
The people who answer the door in Moycullen are engaged and pleasant – something that seems somewhat surprising to Níall and his team of canvassers, given the hammering his party took in 2016.
“But people were very polite last time – and we still got destroyed,” he concedes, perhaps a caveat for those delighting in the positive response they’re ‘getting on the doors’.
“Look, I’m not delusional, but I think I’m in with a shout. We’re going to need four-and-half thousand first preferences to stay in it and if we get those, I think the last two seats are up for grabs. But I’m going to need transfers,” he says, as though he’s said the same to a thousand others over the past few days.
Indeed it’s transfers he’s looking for in Moycullen, and it’s probably a good job because the number ones in Moycullen aren’t exactly forthcoming.
The city is his stronghold, he claims, and they’re out three times a day there from Monday to Friday – spending the weekends out the county.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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