Independent Ireland candidate Noel Thomas says there is a dirty tricks campaign being waged against him in the final days of the Galway West by-election race.
Thomas says his opposition to a housing scheme in Moycullen, his attendance at meetings organised by an overtly seditious organisation, and his objection to new facilities for Galway city’s largest GAA club are being politicised by opponents.
“I stand over everything I done. I’m not fed up with [criticism], and any objection I’ve had against anything has been for valid reasons,” he said, adding that he felt there was an underhand campaign waged against him.
Thomas complained “there’s stuff put out on Tik Tok” designed to paint him as ‘far-right’. “No. I am not. Independent Ireland is centre-right,” he said.
The former Fianna Fáiler said he was both happy and nervous that bookies still back him as favourite to take the seat vacated by Catherine Connolly at 10/11, despite odds narrowing for fellow candidates.
At time of going to press, Fine Gael’s Sean Kyne is 6/5; Labour’s Helen Ogbu is 5/1; Social Democrats Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich is 11/2; Sinn Féin’s Mark Lohan is 8/1; and independent Thomas Welby is 12/1.
Thomas said he expects transfers will be crucial when ballots are counted this weekend, and that “voter recognition of candidates” will be paramount.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics last Sunday, Thomas said transfers he received from Labour’s 2024 general election candidate, Nigerian-born city councillor Helen Ogbu, who is running again this week, was evidence Galway West voters did not perceive him as far-right.
“When you go back and look at the 2024 election, which I took part in myself, I mean: I wasn’t lacking exactly in getting any transfers from any other candidate that was there. I actually got a very good transfer from Helen Ogbu as well, so why people come out with statements then that I’m far right, I don’t understand it,” he told RTÉ’s Áine Lawlor.
Tally analysis shows Thomas received 63 votes when Ogbu’s 2,501 valid transfers were divvied out in 2024 – 2.5 percent of her distribution. The vast majority of Ogbu’s transfers - more than 80 per cent – went to female candidates, predominantly of the left. In response to this analysis, Thomas suggested the Advertiser should check its maths.
Speaking at the Galway Bay FM by-election debate on Monday, Councillor Thomas said he “found it amusing” that he was being repeatedly asked about his attendance at so-called Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB ) meetings.
The Gortachalla man told presenter John Morley he renounced the organisation and “never had anything to do with them,” despite subsequently confirming he attended meetings.
The IRB claims to hold the “Sovereign License (sic )” to rule Ireland, acknowledges a time zone 25 minutes behind GMT, and is backing a currency based on “the individual’s life force” which may be transacted through mobile phones.
Thomas confirmed he did attend an IRB meeting set up to discuss the now empty Owenriff nursing home, taken over by the HSE in 2012 after a patient care scandal.
“It’s strange. I’m not aware of any [IRB] members canvassing for me,” Thomas told the Advertiser, before confirming that Mike Welby – the brother of a fellow by-election candidate from Connemara, Thomas Welby (Ind ) – had canvassed for him “in the past”.
When contacted, Councillor Welby said he would not engage with anything to do with the IRB, which set up one of its first ever branches in Oughterard. Welby represents Conamara North on Galway County Council, which includes Oughterard. The IRB claims more than 100 local branches, including 12 in Galway.
“Their views are extremely far right. I am a centrist, and I don’t think anyone else who says they are should engage with them – I certainly wouldn’t,” he said. “Sure they don’t even recognise the president of Ireland,” Welby said.
Salthill Knocknacrra GAA Club has applied for planning permission for a €10 million facility in Mincloon, at the western outskirts of Galway city. Councillor Thomas is the only politician who lodged an objection. His submission says the new training facility would encroach on neighbouring clubs’ catchment areas, create traffic issues for rural roads, and potentially disrupt the alignment of the proposed city ring road.
Regarding housing objections in Moycullen in 2021, Thomas – then in Fianna Fáil - was one of five Connemara Municipal District councillors who successfully vetoed a Part VIII application to build 31 houses at the edge of Moycullen village. The legacy of this vote has poisoned some working relationships in Galway County Council.
In response to queries from the Advertiser, Thomas said he objected to homes during a housing crisis because residents of the commuter town wanted its publicly-owned land to be used for “community purposes,” not social housing.
