Achill man in race for Galway city seat

Dubbed the 'Group of Death', the race for the six seats representing the City West Electoral Area on Galway City Council is going to be hard fought and right in the thick of it will be an Achill man.

When Kenny Deery announced in April that he was throwing his hat into the ring to try and win a seat on Galway City Council, he set the cat among the pigeons in the Galway political world.

The Bunnacurry native will be among 16 candidates including seven sitting councillors who will be hoping to win one of the six seats in the City West Electoral Area which encompasses Salthill, Knocknacarra, Taylors Hill and Rahoon.

In their election preview, the City Tribune stated that Mr Deery had spooked rivals with his candidacy and was 'mounting a slick campaign' headed by his campaign manager, Denise Horan who is the former editor of The Mayo News.

The outgoing CEO of Galway Chamber of Commerce, Mr Deery admitted to The Mayo News that he is 'out of his comfort zone' with canvassing but is enjoying the experience and listening to people's stories.

“It has definitely been a new experience but I am certainly enjoying it. It is like nothing I have done before. We have been canvassing for nine weeks and calling to people's doorsteps has been a huge learning curve,” he said.

“The big issues I have been fighting for in the chamber is transport and the ring road in Galway and for the people on the doors many of the issues are more local to their area. It is about footpaths and grass verges and the way the city looks.”

‘Honesty’

MR Deery is running as an Independent candidate whose campaign pledge has been about ‘honesty’ and to ‘change the system’. He explained that he decided to run after feeling that the local authority was not working in the best interests of the city.

“The transport strategy for Galway was meant to be reviewed in 2021 and instead Minister [Eamon] Ryan took a different approach. Three years later we still didn't have this document which is really important in terms of how local authority is delivering for Galway. I thought this was outrageous. “Everyone has become quite accepting of the fact so I did a post on Linkedin in January basically calling people out. While there are some great people in the local authority there are others who are underperforming and that cycle of underperformance needs to be called out. There was quite a reaction and some people were very annoyed but it was the truth,” he explained.

Mr Deery has a small team of around ten dedicated supporters who have been canvassing the vast estates of Galway westside. The day starts with an 8am conference call with Denise Horan and they set out what needs to be done where and when.

“You have canvassing teams out every evening but you have a finite time for canvassing in Galway. It is half six in the evening through to half eight so it is a narrow window each day. After half eight you are not knocking on doors because parents are putting kids to bed and it is more of an inconvenience. We need to be very organised in how we approach each day,” he explained.

Posters powerful

AS a first time candidate he has found the election posters have been 'powerful' in terms of getting himself recognised and letting people know who he is. While he is well used to debating people on issues, he admits that talking to people on the doorsteps is out of his comfort zone.

“Canvassing is a whole new world. It is one thing to speak at events and I would be used to those.

There is a different vulnerability standing outside a shop or going door to door and that is a new experience,” he said.

Many of Mr Deery's friends and family from Achill have been up to canvass for him and he admitted meeting plenty of Achill natives at the doorsteps while canvassing.

He faces a big challenge to break through in one of the most competitive electoral areas in the west of Ireland but he feels he has left no stone unturned and is looking forward to Friday's election.

“It is the hardest of the three wards in Galway to get elected but we are giving it a good go. I just hope to get enough number ones to stay in the race and then transfers could be critical.

“Anything can happen then but the last nine weeks have taken me out of my comfort zone and at 42 it has been a new live experience.”