Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. And yet a vacuum is exactly what has been created along the northern shores of Galway Bay, with the retirement from politics at the upcoming election of Eamon O’Cuiv, which will mark the departure of the last member of the DeValera family from the Oireachtas.
O’Cuiv has held the seat since his first election victory in 1992, topping the poll or getting elected on the first count in Galway West in every election bar two – the 2011 Fianna Fáil wipeout, in which he was still comfortably elected – and in 2020 when Sinn Fein appeared to eat into some of his vote in Connemara. Nevertheless, he was the first candidate elected on that occasion, as well. It is an enviable vote-getting record.
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