{"id":464183,"date":"2026-05-24T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464183\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T01:36:09","slug":"independent-irelands-noel-thomas-tops-poll-in-galway-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464183\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent Ireland\u2019s Noel Thomas tops poll in Galway West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent Ireland councillor Noel Thomas topped the poll in the Galway West by-election but the overall result remained unclear ahead of what is expected to be a lengthy count.<\/p>\n

The former Fianna Fail representative, who left the party in 2024 after stating that Ireland should stop accepting asylum seekers because \u201cthe inn is full\u201d, got 10,007 first preference votes.<\/p>\n

He was followed by Fine Gael senator Sean Kyne on 9,647 votes and Labour councillor Helen Ogbu on 5,462.<\/p>\n

Fianna Fail councillor Cillian Keane was on 4,192 votes, Galway mayor Mike Cubbard on 3,396, the Social Democrats\u2019 Mide Nic Fhionnlaoich on 3,354, Sinn Fein\u2019s Mark Lohan on 3,208, and independent councillor Thomas Welby on 3,138.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The total valid poll is 47,893 after 283 spoiled votes were excluded and the quota to be deemed elected is 23,947.<\/p>\n

The counting of votes at the count centre at Galway Lawn Tennis Club finished at around 9.30pm on Saturday after the fourth count.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin paid tribute to Mr Keane and said he was a councillor for just two years and came fourth.<\/p>\n

He said that by-elections \u201cdon\u2019t necessarily correlate to general election outcomes\u201d but said they can be platforms for candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would prefer higher results and higher percentage outcome and we will examine that and certainly the fuel issue has been an issue that has impacted and the cost of living is a very big issue out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said difficulties with transport and delivering key infrastructure had been an issue for people on doorsteps and that Mr Kyne and Mr Thomas, formerly of Fianna Fail, had raised their profiles in the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the party was \u201cdisappointed\u201d with the result and that it was \u201cnot our day\u201d in Galway West.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the count centre, she said Mr Lohan had fought a \u201cstrong\u201d and \u201chonourable\u201d campaign, and that she wanted to assure people they met while canvassing that they would \u201cfight their corner\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe fought a strong campaign, Mark is an outstanding person, articulate, accomplished, he\u2019s been an activists and an advocate all his life, and he\u2019ll continue to be just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics as in sport \u2013 sometimes it\u2019s just not your day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said they \u201chad a great showing\u201d for Ms Nic Fhionnlaoich, who is a first-time candidate, adding that \u201cwe\u2019re really happy with how the results are looking there too\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sheila Garrity got 1,421 votes, the Green Party\u2019s Niall Murphy got 1,199 votes, Aontu\u2019s Orla Nugent got 1,167 votes, and AJ Cahill of The Irish People got 890 votes.<\/p>\n

People Before Profit\u2019s Denman Rooke (540 votes), and independents Neill Bairead (112 votes), John O\u2019Leary (13 votes), Patrick Feeney (39 votes), and Michael Ryan (108 votes) were eliminated and their votes were to be distributed.<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent Ireland councillor Noel Thomas topped the poll in the Galway West by-election but the overall result remained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68707,68708,61,25919,60,43,68709],"class_list":["post-464183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-by-election","tag-galway-west","tag-ie","tag-independent-ireland","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-noel-thomas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464183","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=464183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}