Race now begins for two vacant seats on Council

By Declan Tierney

With two members of Galway City Council getting elected to Dáil Eireann, the attention will now turn to determining who will replace them on the local authority.

It was a huge achievement when Labour’s Derek Nolan topped the poll in the Galway West constituency and this means that he has to vacate his seat on Galway City Council, as will new Fine Gael TD Brian Walsh.

The parties will adopt different strategies in the way they replace their men on Galway City Council but there are a number of possible names being mentioned in both camps.

Labour will conduct an interview process which could well begin later this week.The only Labour candidate not to get elected last time out was Nuala Nolan, who has to be considered a front runner.There is some speculation that Derek Nolan's director of elections Peter Kenny from Renmore may be co-opted in his place.

Fine Gael will go through a convention process and they will take nominations from branch members in the Galway City East electoral area.

It means that members of the Renmore, Mervue, part of Briarhill and the Woodquay/Tirellan cumann can nominate successors to Walsh and these names will then go before delegates for selection.

In the 2009 local elections, chemist Barra Nevin along with Frank Fahy were the unsuccessful Fine Gael candidates and they are viewed as front runners in the race to succeed him on Galway City Council.

Read more in this week's Connacht Sentinel