Tears for Gilmore as Labour clinch their first ever seat in Galway East

The word in Labour circles is that Party Leader Eamon Gilmore TD was watching the results pouring in on television on Sunday night when the result from East Galway flashed up showing Colm Keaveney winning a seat – and, tough politician though he is, Gilmore was moved close to tears.

Well, I did tell you that Gilmore had invested a lot of personal time and interest in this seat in his native East Galway and nothing would be dearer to his heart than for Labour to snatch a victory.

All Gilmore’s connections are in the Caltra area, he campaigned in the constituency several times and, crucially, he intervened directly on the key issue of the future of Portiuncula Hospital. Which could explain some of those vital transfers from Tim Broderick to Colm Keaveney in the East Galway decider.

Portiuncula was one of the major questions in the four-seater constituency and candidate Colm Keaveney had joined in a key alliance locally in the Ballinasloe area through people like Johnny Walsh and indeed those involved in working in the hospital. There was a letter from Eamon Gilmore giving an assurance that there would be no downgrading of services at Portiuncula.

But, equally importantly, the Labour campaigners in Galway East had learnt the lessons from Fianna Fail campaign style in its attention to detail. For instance, one night before Christmas, weeks before an election was even called, I spoke to Colm Keaveney about the election .... to discover that he was doing a door-to-door canvass between Loughrea and Portumna in pouring rain. The canvassers were also out on nights when it was Minus 10 degrees!

For many in the Labour Party, of course, the Keaveney victory will have brought back memories of Bobby Burke, the iconic Tuam figure who stood for the party in the Galway North constituency in 1948 and got over 2,200 votes.

The Keaveney attention to detail reminded me of the legendary Jackie Fahey, a Fianna Fail TD in Tipperary who had to transfer to Waterford in the 80s when there was a constituency revision and set about overcoming the difficulties brought about by the revision. Fahey said he could make the transition all right ..... by ensuring that he knocked on enough doors personally, and by ensuring that in every Cumann (Branch) in Waterford, he had installed a small number of people who could ‘guarantee’ a number of votes of people – by name!

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.