When Fine Gael ask if you want to go with them to canvass Michael D Higgins' house, you say yes.

GIVEN THAT SEÁN KYNE had just been ushered off a woman’s property while out canvassing in Galway, it seemed like a brave move for the Fine Gael candidate to suggest knocking on former President Michael D. Higgins’ door.

But if Kyne was worried about an embarrassingly frosty reception from the veteran Labour politician in front of a journalist, there was no need.

Kyne, alongside Enterprise Minister Peter Burke and local Fine Gael councillor Eddie Hoare, was met with a gracious reception from Higgins and his wife Sabina, with the pair even complimenting Kyne’s election posters. 

“That’s my win now,” Burke (Fine Gael’s Galway West director of elections) said as they made their way back down the driveway – he had suggested Kyne wear no tie in his election posters. 

Unfortunately for Kyne, the reception he received on all the doors he knocked on while The Journal was in tow was not as warm as that given by the former president. 

Shortly before, a lady at one house greeted the Fine Gael senator by telling him he had her vote, but then she seemed to remember some of her grievances. 

In particular, she was annoyed about the absence of a footpath beside the local primary school. 

When she was told by Hoare that two paths are being piloted next year, her response was: “Big deal, we’ve been asking for this for the past 10 years.”

“Off you go,” she said as she concluded the conversation and waved the pair off her property. It was unclear whether she still intended to vote for Fine Gael. 

With just two days to go until voters decide who will fill the Galway West seat vacated by President Catherine Connolly, Kyne has a marginal edge in the polls (17%), just ahead of Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas (16%).

The Journal hit the pavement with both candidates on Wednesday and also stopped by canvasses with Fianna Fáil candidate Cillian Keane and Independent Mike Cubbard, the current Mayor of Galway City. 

“I’ve been happy with how the campaign is going, there’s been a lot of positivity,” Kyne told The Journal as he canvassed on the outskirts of Galway City. 

For him, the main issues coming up on the doors are traffic, infrastructure, schools and the cost of living. 

It’s the same issues other candidates are being met with too, but where the non-government candidates lay the blame for the high cost of living at the feet of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Kyne points to the war in the Middle East as the reason for high fuel prices. 

“If things are even worse in terms of oil prices in the future, we have the firepower, we have the resources to be able to respond. And that’s because of the surpluses, the management of the economy, the hard work of the people in this area,” he said. 

Other candidates see it differently. 

Earlier in the day, while knocking on doors in Mervue in Galway City, Independent Ireland candidate, councillor Noel Thomas said even people he would consider to be “well off” are complaining about the cost of living. 

“When you see that, you know things are getting out of hand,” he said. 

Thomas, a former Fianna Fáil councillor who quit the party in 2024 after a disagreement over its immigration policy, finds that the issue of immigration isn’t coming up in a significant way in this byelection, with the cost of living and housing dominating instead.

Advertisement

Thomas made headlines in 2024 after he declared the “inn is full” in the wake of a suspected arson attack on a hotel earmarked for International Protection accommodation.

Asked what he made of the reaction to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s comments about immigration while on the campaign trail in Dublin Central last week, Thomas said he hasn’t actually seen or heard them in full; he’s been too focused on his own campaign.

Further out from the city in Oranmore, Fianna Fáil’s candidate, councillor Cillian Keane said he did see what Ahern had to say, but he isn’t worried about it negatively impacting his campaign.

“I was disappointed with the language that was used,” Keane said, adding that what the former Fianna Fáil leader said was “not acceptable”. 

“We all have family members that have gone to far-flung corners of the globe, humans are humans at the end of the day and have to be treated with respect,” Keane said. 

At 25, he is the youngest candidate in the Galway West race, and to his mind, infrastructure is the big issue that needs to be addressed for Galway. 

Asked if there is one main goal that would drive him as a TD, Keane again points to infrastructure. 

“Roads, water, wastewater, the hospital. We’re growing at a brilliant rate at the moment, but we are being held back, if I am honest about it.

“The big project that I would love, if I could at some stage in my political career, say I had a mark in that: the UHG Hospital,” Keane said, explaining that he would like to play a role in improving it. 

Meanwhile, over in the city’s Westside, Independent Mayor Mike Cubbard was canvassing in Camillaun Park with his wife Karen and some supporters. 

Cubbard polled a respectable 7% in the Irish Times/TG4 poll carried out earlier this month, neck and neck with Sinn Féin’s Mark Lohan (who we caught up with on Tuesday).

For Cubbard, the cost of living is the core issue coming up on the doors in this byelection. 

“People are really concerned with keeping their house warm, older people in particular,” Cubbard said. 

While he doesn’t like labels, Cubbard said if pushed, he would describe himself as “leaning left with the old, I stress the old, Labour Party values”.

On what would be his core driver as a TD, Cubbard said “getting fairness for Galway” and to “give a voice to young people”. 

As we knock on doors, an old neighbour of Cubbard’s wishes him well and tells him she will be “putting the Jesus light on for him”. 

Religious or not, it’s an offering all the candidates in Galway West would surely gratefully accept at this stage of the race. 

Voters will go to the polls in the Galway West and Dublin Central byelections this Friday, 22 May. 

The full list of candidates who are contesting the Galway West byelection is as follows:

• Néill Bairéad (Independent)
• A.J. Cahill (The Irish People)
• Mike Cubbard (Independent)
• Patrick Feeney (Independent)
• Sheila Garrity (Independent)
• Cillian Keane (Fianna Fáil)
• Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
• Mark Lohan (Sinn Féin)
• Niall Murphy (Green Party)
• Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich (Social Democrats)
• Orla Nugent (Aontú)
• Helen Ogbu (Labour)
• John O’Leary (Independent)
• Denman Rooke (People Before Profit)
• Michael Ryan (Independent)
• Noel Thomas (Independent Ireland)
• Thomas Welby (Independent)

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More Support The Journal