FG (sky) blues over Michelle’s Corofin colours!

Bradley Bytes met a Blueshirt a couple of days ago who told us some of the old-guard in Salthill and Knocknacarra aren’t best pleased with the party’s new candidate in the West Ward, Michelle Murphy.

Michelle ticks a lot of boxes.

She’s a woman, for one thing, which does FG no harm in the gender quota department.

She’s young and presentable, which helps FG get away from its fuddy-duddy and stuffy image of grey-haired males, who populate the party.

Nobody else really wanted the nomination, so that solved a selection headache.

We’ve not had the pleasure yet of having to deal with Michelle but by all accounts she’s fairly competent, which isn’t always a ‘given’ in politics.

So far, so good.

The problem for Michelle is she’s running for a seat in the local elections . . . yet she’s anything but local.

Co-opted to Galway City Council to replace Senator Hildergarde Naughton, Michelle is now representing the people of Salthill and Knocknacarra while living in Corofin.

Not a million miles away but a good distance nonetheless.

The Blueshirts in the area could put up with that, as long she pulls her weight and attends meetings etcetera in suburbs west of the city . . . but what some of them couldn’t stomach, apparently, was the sight of Michelle donning the green and yellow of her home village, Corofin, at the recent county football final between the North Galway club and Salthill/Knocknacarra.

Corofin won that day by a long shot but Michelle would do well not to gloat too much if she’s to rely on the FG GAA fraternity to get the vote out in the local elections later this year.

What with two rivals having strong GAA connections (David Burke of Fianna Fáil and independent Donal Lyons were both chairman of the club) Michelle should invest in a sky blue jersey . . . And keep her Corofin colours at home!

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.