World of Politics with Harry McGee

For a period of 30 years between 1981 and 2016 – with a small break in the eighties – Labour held a seat in Galway West. After making the breakthrough in 1981, Micheal D. Higgins retained his seat in the first election of 1982 but lost it that November, returning to the Dáil in 1987.

When he won the Presidential Election in 2011, Derek Nolan retained the seat for a further five years. Indeed, in 2011 Labour even made a breakthrough in Galway East with Colm Keaveney winning a seat for the party.

So over three decades, Galway was a lodestar for Labour – through the troughs as well as the peaks.

There is a question as to whether or not it was Labour or was it Michael D Higgins?

Sure Nolan won in 2011 – but that was on the back of the so-called Gilmore Gale, when the party won 37 seats, even making that breakthrough in Galway East.

Michael D Higgins’ vote in the constituency was a bit like Bobby Molloy’s personal support – blood was thicker than water.

I have written about this before but the big societal upheavals that have occurred in Ireland since the turn of the century have not left politics untouched. The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael hegemony has probably been broken since the turn of the century but when the economy seemed to be doing so well under Bertie Ahern, people backed a winning horse. That was, until the horse began to lose.

After the collapse of the banks and economy in 2009 and 2010, that’s when things began to crumble. For a little while in late 2010 Labour looked like it was the party du jour: Remember the slogan of ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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