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WITH JUST DAYS to go until voters go to the polls in Galway West, Sinn Féin’s candidate Mark Lohan has his doorstep pitch down to a T.
On a rainy and dull Tuesday in Galway city, the trade union official dashes from door to door in An Sean Bhaile, Doughiska, a working-class estate on the eastern edge of Galway City.
“We want to put it up to this Government and give people a break on the cost of living,” he tells those who answer their doors.
Lohan is accompanied by Sinn Féin Donegal TD, Pearse Doherty, (or “the man from the telly” as one voter put it) and a small group of party volunteers and staff.
All are feeling optimistic ahead of Friday’s election.
This is despite Lohan’s disappointing position in the sole public poll carried out for the constituency.
At 7%, he placed seventh in the Ipsos poll commissioned by TG4 and the Irish Times earlier this month, behind Fine Gael, Independent Ireland, Labour, Social Democrats and Galway City Mayor Mike Cubbard (non-party).
“That poll is inaccurate as far as I’m concerned,” Lohan tells The Journal when asked if he was surprised by it.
“There was a poll for Mairéad [Farrell] the year before, at the general [election] that had her fighting for the fifth seat, and she topped the poll. And look, Mairéad’s vote is holding, we can see that,” he says, referring to Sinn Féin’s TD in Galway West.
“We’ve been out every day for months now and what you just saw on the doors there is an example of what’s happening in all our core working-class areas. That support for Sinn Féin is there,” Lohan says.
Doherty adds that internal polling carried out by Sinn Féin about two weeks ago showed that it is a “run-off” between Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne and Sinn Féin in Galway West.
The TG4/Irish Times poll placed Kyne out in front on 17%, with Independent Ireland’s Noel Thomas directly behind him on 16%.
On whether they are concerned about losing voters to Independent Ireland, Doherty says: “Well, we think it’s between ourselves and Fine Gael and that’s what the research shows. The key thing with Mark is he’ll pick up transfers across the board.”
On the doors, Lohan and Doherty repeatedly bring the conversation back to the cost of living and housing as they chat with voters.
At one house, one lady tells the pair that she is concerned about her primary school-aged daughter being taught about “transgenderism” and “boys wearing dresses”.
Doherty tells her that the curriculum needs to be “age appropriate” and says what needs to be taught in school is “dignity and respect”.
Lohan changes the subject by asking what school the child goes to and chatting about it before telling the lady he wants to “put it up to the government and do something about the cost of living”.
“That as well, and immigration,” she responds.
Doherty tells her that the government’s asylum system is a “mess” and Lohan says millionaires are being created out of people providing direct provision.
“We know there are many good people who are coming in and working,” Lohan says before pivoting the conversation to government waste (bike sheds) and the cost of living.
Lohan and Doherty’s handling of the topic comes in sharp contrast to that of Bertie Ahern’s, whose comments about immigration were covertly filmed and put online last week after the former Fianna Fáil taoiseach canvassed in Dublin Central.
Ahern was filmed saying he believes there are too many migrants coming to Ireland.
He said the “ones I worry about are the Africans”, adding “we can’t be taking in people from the Congo and all these places. I think there’s too many from those places.”
Asked what he made of the remarks, Lohan says he thought what Ahern said was “wrong”.
“The way I see it, Bertie Ahern is a has-been politician.
“And it’s no surprise to me that a Fianna Fáiler speaks out of both sides of their mouth and tells people what they want to hear,” Lohan says.
“When all the while, he presided over the system that has made a mess of international protection applications and created millionaires out of people providing accommodation and left those who are seeking protection languishing without a hearing,” he adds.
Across the doors, Lohan consistently appeals to voters to vote left, transfer left, telling voters that the constituency can’t afford another government backbench TD.
He tells The Journal that he is optimistic that a left coalition will make up the next government.
‘That’s the alternative I want to see…People are fed up with what’s there and with the status quo. They want something different.
“And Sinn Féin are the leaders of that something different, and people are expecting that of us, I feel that burden of responsibility certainly,” he says, adding that some of the stories he is hearing from people at the doors are “heartbreaking”.
“The biggest thing that I’m seeing is the level of hardship…Young people stuck in box rooms, unable to move on with their lives, their lives delayed.
“People paying a mortgage or rent of over two grand and unable to get a mortgage… And then people facing evictions. Evictions are up in Galway, and when they are facing an eviction, they can’t even find anything else in the area,” he tells The Journal.
Lohan believes he is the leading candidate of the left in Galway West and that transfers on Friday will get him over the line.
“We’ll know when the boxes are opened,” he says.
The Dublin Central and Galway West byelections will take place Friday, 22 May.
The full list of candidates who are contesting the Galway West byelection is as follows:
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