On The Canvass Trail in Galway West

This week, Cllr Noel Thomas was joined on the canvass trail by Eavan Murray western correspondent for the Irish Independent.  

Summary of the piece featured in today's Irish Independent is below:

When a relationship between a politician and their party goes sour, it is often ugly and it is always public. But few in recent years have been accompanied by quite the level of drama as that of veteran Councillor Noel Thomas and Fianna Fáil.

There was a protest, a huge fire, a blistering row with party leader Micheál Martin and a dawn raid.

Thomas (50) resigned after facing disciplinary action for comments he made in the wake of a fire that destroyed the Ross Lake House Hotel in Rosscahill last December. The remote but idyllically situated hotel had been earmarked to house 70 male asylum seekers.

He created a national furore when he said live on radio that Ireland could no longer accommodate refugees as “the inn is full”.

Locally, he didn’t receive any of the same level of criticism. Months later he topped the poll in the local elections as a member of Independent Ireland. The married father-of-four from Gortachalla, Co Galway, is now their Galway West candidate in the general election and is hotly tipped to win a seat.

When the Irish Independent joints him on the canvass this week, it’s a bitterly cold day, but the welcome on the doors is warm. More than once, he is hugged.

Teresa and Paddy Joyce, from Rosscahill, are both “lifelong” Fianna Fáil members and have now thrown their support behind Thomas. “A Iot of Fianna Fáil votes will go his way, I would say,” says Paddy. “This is a great opportunity for us to get someone born and reared in the area and understands the country people.”

Thomas is eager to state that he is not anti-immigration and says his comments were based on a chronic lack of services in the area.

The Joyces agree, and say the community has been welcoming to other new arrivals. “It didn’t get him into trouble locally. He said what the locals were saying and thinking. There are 35 Indian families in between Moycullen and Rosscahill. They used the community centre here more than the locals do. They are so welcome here and there has never been a bother.”

Teresa doesn’t want to comment on Fianna Fáil’s Galway West candidate Gráinne Seoige but she has strong feelings about celebrity candidates: “Absolutely ridiculous. They know nothing about political life.”

By going solo, Thomas is having to compete without the party machine behind him but he may benefit from soaring support for independents across the country.