Galway West<\/a>, where Cillian Keane trailed behind other candidates with 8.8 per cent of the first-preference vote.<\/p>\nIreland newsletter<\/p>\n
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While Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Fein president, and Martin both maintained there was no immediate threat to their leaderships, the internal mood in the two parties was bleak on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Two Sinn Fein parliamentar\u00adians who did not want to be identified said they believed significant changes would have to be made to avoid another electoral defeat in the general election. \u201cIt has to be a wake-up call. Otherwise\u00ad we are screwed,\u201d one member of the parliamentary party said. Some within Sinn Fein believe the party needs to revert to a \u201ccore left\u201d stance.<\/p>\n
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Counting continued into the evening for the Galway West by-electionNiall Carson\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Asked about McDonald keeping her post, a second Sinn Fein source said they were unsure of the path ahead and did not believe the party leadership could \u201cspin\u201d the results in any positive light.<\/p>\n
At the RDS, McDonald was defiant in terms of her position, despite earlier admitting that \u201ctoday was not our day\u201d. She denied that her leadership was in peril, saying \u201cpressure is for tyres\u201d, and argued that by-elections were a \u201cpeculiarity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy-elections are by-elections. I would humbly suggest to you that when the general election comes, watch and see how we perform then,\u201d she added. \u201cLet me say on the leadership question, because I know this is something you are very keen to question us about, there is only one way to become the leader of Sinn Fein and that is at our annual ard fheis. There is not an alternative route. I am the leader, I will lead on. The job of a leader is that you are there on the good days and the bad days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The taoiseach also denied that his leadership was at risk. At the Galway West count centre\u00ad he admitted it was \u201ca poor result, no question about that\u201d, but pointed towards \u201cdifficulties in that particular constituency\u201d.<\/p>\n
When asked about two cabinet ministers, Jim O\u2019Callaghan and James Lawless,\u00a0announcing their interest in becoming future leaders of the party, he argued this was a positive step because when he took over the party in 2011, very few wanted to step up to the plate.<\/p>\n
One Fianna Fail TD said there would be \u201cserious anger\u201d in the party over the results in the by-elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result in Dublin Central is deplorable and the fact we didn\u2019t get into double digits in Galway West is very poor,\u201d they said. \u201cThe party can\u2019t accept that. We can\u2019t have a change in taoiseach on the eve of the European presidency \u2014 we have a duty to the country \u2014 but I do feel like there will be serious conversations in the new year. Miche\u00e1l is certainly helped by the fact that no one is standing up to replace him now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darragh O\u2019Brien, also viewed as a leadership contender, said Martin\u2019s leadership was \u201cabsolutely not\u201d in question.<\/p>\n
![\"Independent](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0169864e-253a-4795-a716-bcf7e23b197b.jpg\")
The Independent Ireland candidate Noel Thomas, left, with TD Michael Collins at the count in GalwayNiall Carson\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
However, the fact that Se\u00e1n Kyne, a former Fine Gael TD, exceeded expectations to be in the hunt for a seat in Galway West \u2014 alongside the independent Noel Thomas and potentially Labour\u2019s Helen Ogbu \u2014 has inflamed anger among Fianna Fail backbenchers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes to show that Fianna Fail in particular is taking a hit in government,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leaders of Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail are facing a significant internal backlash in the wake of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-464103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464103","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=464103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Janice](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/99db41bf-6b4a-4864-bfaf-4cc5bf81a578.jpg\")
Sinn Fein\u2019s candidate for Dublin Central, Janice Boylan, was joined by the party leader Mary Lou McDonald for the by-election countJustin Farrelly\/RollingNews\/Photocall Ireland<\/p>\n