'We hit the campaign trail running on Saturday,' says Labour activist
Date Published: {J}
It will be the first time in more than 40 years that Michael D Higgins’ name has has not appeared for Labour on a Galway West ballot paper. He got 1,174 first preferences and was runningmate for the late Tommie Tierney in 1969 when he ran for the first time and has run at every election since.
There probably was never a better time to try to defend the Labour seat – if the opinion polls showing a huge swing to Labour are proven to be correct and the party popularity can survive what promises to be a bruising campaign, with the ’papers already becoming more vicious about Eamon Gilmore and more searching on Labour policies.
Labour in Galway West say they will not be depending on ‘brand Labour’ to hold on to the seat which Michael D first won in 1981, but has held non-stop since 1987 .... that’s why they have slated their Selection Convention for the Menlo Park Hotel on Friday night, with former party leader Pat Rabbitte in the chair.
In other words, they want to get started early on the campaigning and getting likely candidate Councillor Derek Nolan much more widely known throughout the five-seater constituency.
Said one leading Labour activist: “We meet on Friday night in the Menlo Park to select the ticket ... and on Saturday morning we will be hitting the streets running, with the campaign getting underway immediately.”
That Fine Gael private opinion poll in Galway West – insofar as you can believe any poll – showed that, if Labour had Michael D Higgins on the ballot paper, he would be heading the poll with 18 per cent of the first preferences and comfortably ahead of the Quota on the first count.
When the Labour delegates sit down on Friday night in the Menlo Park to make their selection – and the ‘racing certainty’ now seems to be city Councillor Nolan – they will know that, though Labour are high in the polls and there has ‘always’ been a Labour seat in Galway West, they dare not take any chances by being over confident. Indeed, I hear some feel there should be another candidate in the race, possibly based in Connemara.
One way or another, the ‘phoney war’ is coming to an end – for the Fine Gael Convention in Galway West is listed for November 21 and the Labour selection convention in Galway East looks likely to be on November 29. Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil is ‘keeping sthum’ and letting them get on with it ... which might yet be a tactical error.
For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.