{"id":413533,"date":"2026-04-23T13:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413533\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T13:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:57:07","slug":"dublin-central-galway-west-byelections-to-be-held-on-may-22nd-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/413533\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin Central, Galway West byelections to be held on May 22nd \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The writs for the two byelections in Dublin Central<\/a> and Galway West<\/a> have been moved in the D\u00e1il<\/a> to allow them take place on Friday, May 22nd in a four-week campaign.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael TD and Assistant Government Chief Whip Emer Currie moved the writ for the Dublin Central election for a successor to former Fine Gael minister for finance Paschal Donohoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People Before Profit<\/a> leader Richard Boyd Barrett<\/a> moved the writ for the Galway West constituency, to fill the vacancy following the election of former Independent TD Catherine Connolly<\/a> as President.<\/p>\n

He told the House: \u201cI move. Get the posters up.\u201d <\/p>\n

The writs were moved on Wednesday, which was earlier than expected as D\u00e1il business finished ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

Minister for Local Government James Browne<\/a> signed the official order on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Candidates for Galway West include: <\/p>\n

Fine Gael\u2019s Se\u00e1n Kyne;Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Mark Lohan; Independent Sheila Garrity \u2013 representing the group that campaigned for Catherine Connolly; Independent Ireland\u2019s Noel Thomas;Thomas Welby (Independent);Mike Cubbard (Independent);Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Cillian Keane; Labour\u2019s Helen Ogbu; Aont\u00fa\u2019s Orla Nugent ; The Green Party\u2019s Niall Murphy; Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich of the Social Democrats; PBP\u2019s Denman Rooke<\/p>\n

In Dublin Central, candidates include:<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Janice Boylan;Fine Gael\u2019s Ray McAdam (currently Lord Mayor of Dublin); Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s John Stephens; Malachy Steenson (Independent);Colm Flood (Independent); Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats;The Green Party\u2019s Janet Horner; PBP\u2019s Eoghan \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in; Labour\u2019s Ruth O\u2019Dea; Aont\u00fa\u2019s Ian Noel Smyth;Gerry Hutch, the gangland figure known as the Monk, who narrowly failed to win a seat at the general election. <\/p>\n

The Department of Housing has confirmed that voting will take place between 7am and 10pm on May 22nd. <\/p>\n

Any candidates intending to stand in either by-election will now have until a deadline of noon on Friday, May 1st to submit their nomination. According to the Department of Housing, candidates have until noon on Saturday May 2nd to withdraw their nominations if they wish. <\/p>\n

More than 57,000 estimated voters in Dublin Central and 103,000 in Galway West will be eligible to vote in the by-elections. Anyone who is not yet registered to vote and wishes to add their name to the register has until Tuesday, May 5th. <\/p>\n

An Coimisi\u00fan Toghch\u00e1in, the Electoral Commission, said the \u201cquickest and easiest way to register to vote or to update your details\u201d is via the website checktheregister.ie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chief executive of the commission Art O\u2019Leary said: \u201cnow that we have an official date for the byelections, the people of Dublin Central and Galway West can start thinking in earnest about who they want as their new TDs in the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clock is ticking to get yourself registered to vote if you\u2019re a first-time voter, or to update your voting details if you\u2019ve moved house, returned to Ireland from abroad or recently became an Irish citizen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough these two byelections as Ireland\u2019s independent electoral commission we will be working to give people access to clear and impartial information about what byelections are, voter registration and how to cast their vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour vote is your voice, so my appeal to people across Dublin Central and Galway West is to make sure that your voice is heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the D\u00e1il, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy warned TDs not to canvass in the D\u00e1il for their byelection candidates. They could raise policy matters in their constituencies. <\/p>\n

However, the \u201cshould not name candidates or bring them into their debates, either by way of praise or criticism,\u201d she said. \u201cContributions should relate strictly to the business before the House,\u201d and she called for \u201call of your co-operation during the period ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The writs for the two byelections in Dublin Central and Galway West have been moved in the D\u00e1il…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-413533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-irish-politics","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}