Main Points
- We are in the final day of the Dublin Central and Galway West byelection campaigns
- Voting takes place from 7am to 10pm on Friday
- The margins between success and failure could be wafer thin, so expect a frantic final few days on the ground, says Pat Leahy
- Counting starts on Saturday morning with results expected by early evening
- Ahead of tomorrow’s votes, all Irish Times polling coverage and data, including the most pressing issues for voters, can be accessed here
Key Reads
- What are voters’ five big issues in Dublin Central and Galway West byelections?
- Four things to watch in the last week of campaigning
- Polymarket betting on Dublin Central byelection to be examined by officials
- ‘Immigration not a big issue on the doors’: Galway West win for Noel Thomas would be fresh blow to FF
Modern Irish political campaigning is less about big donations and large online spends and more about shaking hands, hanging posters and knocking on doors.
But this rose-tinted view of Irish campaigning overlooks the large sums politicians spend trying to influence our votes, Liz Carolan writes.
In 2024, parties collectively spent about €10 million on the general election.
Add in the local and European elections, and Fine Gael alone spent €3.2 million that year. We only learn these figures months after power has been allocated, and when our attention has moved on to how it is being wielded.
Read her piece in full here.
Israel preventing consular staff from engaging with Irish citizens ‘not acceptable’ - McEntee
Much of Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil was dominated by the detainment of activists taking part in the Gaza-bound flotilla, Parliamentary Correspondent Marie O’Halloran reports.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee confirmed that 14 Irish citizens who were detained in Israel have arrived by bus at Ramon Airport, to be flown to Istanbul where they will be met by Ireland’s ambassador to Turkey, Clare Brosnan.
Referring to reports that two citizens had been hospitalised, McEntee said they were not Irish. However, she said “others have been injured”, adding that she would confirm whether these include Irish citizens.
McEntee said consular teams have consistently called for access and the ability to engage directly with affected citizens, but “that has been denied”.
“And I want to utterly condemn these actions and say that it is not acceptable. Whether it’s the Irish Government or any other government, that we have been prevented from engaging and speaking directly to our citizens,” she said.
Boylan accuses Government of ‘inexplicably cutting resources’
Sinn Féin’s candidate for the Dublin Central byelection, Janice Boylan, has accused the Government of “inexplicably cutting resources” after a primary school in East Wall was told it was at risk of losing two teaching posts.
Boylan said St Joseph’s is the only primary school in the area and is “already starved of resources”.
Boylan met the principal of St Joseph’s with party leader Mary Lou McDonald, saying she was informed that its pre-junior infants programme was also facing closure.
Reducing such provision would “further compound the already-existing disadvantage in this community”, she said.
“This decision by the Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil government needs to be immediately reversed.”
‘So close’: What the poll numbers tell us in Dublin Central
‘Anything to say about Enoch Burke?’: Martin confronted by Burkes
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was followed and confronted by members of Enoch Burke’s family while he was canvassing in Galway.
In a video posted on social media on Wednesday evening, Burke’s mother, Martina Burke, is seen running after the Taoiseach, asking him if he has “anything to say about transgenderism”.
He was also asked if he had “anything to say about Enoch Burke”.
Moments later, he was approached by Isaac Burke, who told the Taoiseach his brother had been in prison for “700 days”, as Martina Burke labels Martin a “creep” and a “disgrace” in the background.
Enoch Burke is in jail for breaching a court order banning him from Wilson’s Hospital School, Co Westmeath, where he previously taught German and history. He has repeatedly breached orders not to trespass.
In the sometimes tense exchange on Wednesday, the Taoiseach largely did not respond to the Burkes until he asked for “space” after the camera was held close to his face.
Martin subsequently told Isaac Burke to move “out of my way now” after he held his arm in front of the Taoiseach while he walked.
“I don’t mind what you say, what you do, but you don’t impede my progress,” the Taoiseach said.
At one point, flanked by the Burkes, the Taoiseach waves and smiles at a passerby in the distance while canvassing for his party’s Galway West candidate, Cillian Keane, as Martina Burke shouts: “Shame on you, Micheál.”
Last month, Martina Burke and her daughter, Ammi Burke, were released from prison, having served a two-week sentence for contempt of court.
Irish citizens detained by Israel expected to be deported
Activists, including several Irish citizens, who were detained by Israeli forces after taking part in a global flotilla bound for Gaza are expected to be deported to Turkey on Thursday.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said the detained Irish citizens were transferred overnight from Ashdod port to Ktzi’ot Prison, a detention facility in the Negev desert usually used for Palestinians.
Consular access had “not yet been granted” to the detention facility, McEntee said.
“Our Embassy in Tel Aviv remain on the ground and stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance and support as soon as access is permitted,” she said in a statement.
It is expected the Irish detainees will be deported to Turkey later on Thursday, she said, where they will be met by representatives of the Irish Embassy there.
Moved away but go home to vote? You may have committed a crime
Have you ever moved county, city, emigrated even, but still travelled home to vote in your local constituency? Then you may have committed an electoral crime.
It is illegal to vote in an Irish constituency you are not ordinarily resident in. There are loopholes – for example, emigrants are still allowed to vote at home up to 18 months after leaving, and students living away on weekdays can still be considered resident at home.
But for those who have relocated long term and find themselves registered in two constituencies, it is a crime punishable with jail time.
Yet it is also potentially easily done. Only one person was charged with attempting the crime of election fraud in the five years before the last general election.
Why just one? Because the Electoral Register is a mess.
Read more from Data Journalist Rachel Lavin here.
Who will win Friday’s byelections?
Political Editor Pat Leahy gives his take on what’s happening in these two constituencies and predicts who will win.
Byelections: who are the favourites to win in Dublin Central and Galway West?
Voters told to head to the polls a day early in leaflet error
An error on leaflets distributed for Fianna Fáil’s Dublin Central candidate, John Stephens, ahead of Friday’s byelection has incorrectly seen constituents asked to head to the polls a day early.
Those who received the election literature on Wednesday were told to vote for Stephens on “Thursday, 22nd May”.
A small number of the leaflets with the production error were distributed, and it is understood it has since been rectified.
The phone number printed is also a digit short.
People ‘are sick of the Government parties’
Although Independent Ireland candidate Noel Thomas came to national attention for his stance on immigration, he says it is “not one of the big issues on the doors” in Galway West.
Instead, the cost-of-living crisis is the biggest issue being raised, according to the councillor who left Fianna Fáil in 2024 after a fallout with the party over its immigration policy.
During a recent canvass, he told Andrew Hamilton there are people who are “sick of the Government parties” and feel “let down”.
“The ordinary person, when you knock on their door, they feel like they have no other purpose but to be there to pay taxes for the Government,” he said.
Read in full here.
Irish Times polling earlier this month showed Thomas in second place with 16 per cent of first-preference votes. He was behind Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne (17 per cent).
Fears grow in Government over further tech job losses
Fears are growing in Government that yesterday’s job losses at Meta’s Irish operation could be followed by further cuts in the wider sector.
Meta on Wednesday cut up to 350 jobs, about 20 per cent of its Irish workforce, as part of the latest round of job losses that will see it shed thousands of roles worldwide.
Industry figures have privately warned Ministers and officials that as many as 80 per cent of tech jobs globally could be lost over the coming decade.
Read more here.
Ahead of tomorrow’s votes, all Irish Times polling coverage and data, including the most pressing issues for voters, can be accessed here.
McEntee to take Leaders’ Questions
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee will be taking Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil later today, during which the issue of the detained Gaza flotilla activists is likely to arise.
A video posted by Israeli far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has drawn criticism from both Israeli and international political figures.
In the video, Ben-Gvir is seen walking through a ship and taunting detained activists as they knelt on the floor with their hands bound.
A detained Irish activist, Caitríona Graham, is seen being restrained by soldiers and pushed back down by the head to a kneeing position after chanting: “Free, free Palestine.”
McEntee described it as “utterly appalling and unacceptable behaviour”.
More can be read on that here.
The Taoiseach, meanwhile, has written to the president of the European Council calling for an EU-wide banning of products from Israeli settlements and the suspension of the EU’s Association Agreement with Israel following its “shocking treatment” of the activists.
It is the final day of campaigning for Friday’s byelections in Dublin Central and Galway West.
Ahead of the polls opening at 7am tomorrow, party leaders will be joining candidates for a final round of canvassing, with the exception of Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
The Fianna Fáil leader will be in Paris to meet French president Emmanuel Macron.
However, Irish Times polling suggest his party’s candidates in both constituencies are unlikely to challenge for a seat.
In polls carried out earlier this month, Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan was leading the race in Dublin Central, followed by Social Democrats candidate Daniel Ennis. Veteran criminal and Independent candidate Gerry Hutch was in third place.
In Galway West, Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne held a slim lead over Independent Ireland candidate Noel Thomas. Labour’s Helen Ogbu was in third place.
