Things are heating ahead of the upcoming Galway West by-election.
There are now seven candidates confirmed to be running for the Dáil seat, vacated by President Catherine Connolly.
Sarah Slevin has all the details so far:
The Galway West constituency is an interesting one - covering all of Galway city and a vast portion of the county, including Connemara.
While no date has yet been set, it's expected to take place in April or early May - and even though seven candidates have now been confirmed, there is still no clear front-runner at this stage.
First out of the stalls last October was former City Councillor Niall Murphy - who was selected to contest the by-election for the Green Party
Niall narrowly lost his first-time seat in the 2024 local elections.
Next up was Independent Ireland Councillor Noel Thomas - a previous poll-topper in the Connemara South local elections in 2024.
A former Fianna Fáil member, Thomas just missed the fifth Galway West seat in last year's General Election when he ran for Independent Ireland
Thomas' council colleague - Connemara Independent Councillor Tom Welby kicked off candidate confirmations in 2026 - announcing his intention to run in mid-January.
Councillor Welby was also a poll-topper in his local constituency of Connemara North, and is a long-serving councillor from Oughterard.
Just days later, we got our fourth confirmed candidate in University of Galway lecturer Sheila Garrity.
Living in Knocknacarra, Sheila was involved in Catherine Connolly's Presidential campaign, and is also Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at DCU.
At the end of January, Labour selected its candidate - choosing City East Councillor Helen Ogbu.
Councillor Ogbu previously contested the 2024 General Election, having been first elected to Galway City Council earlier that year.
That brings us to just last night - when the ballot of five became seven - and two more candidates were selected.
Social Democrats chose 26 year old Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich (pron. MEEDJA NICK -IN-LEE-AWK) from Connemara
Míde is a parliamentary assistant for Dublin-Rathdown TD Sinead Gibney, has served as welfare officer for UCD Students' Union, and has worked for Mental Health Reform.
Also confirmed in the past 24 hours was the Aontú candidate - Orla Nugent.
Orla is originally from County Fermanagh, but now lives in Terryland and works as a primary school teacher in Galway city.
While that's the confirmed list so far, it won't be long before the two Government parties get invovled in the race.
Just this morning, Fine Gael opened its nomination process, and that will remain open until next Thursday February 12th
Speculation would place City Councillor and former Mayor of Galway Eddie Hoare as the most likely choice - who has shown interest in running.
Fianna Fáil have remained tight-lipped on their process so far, but reports suggest they may run two candidates based at opposite ends of the constituency, and hope for a successful transfer strategy.
And that's the state of things so far - and no matter how many more names are put forward, we're in for a fascinating few months of campaigning here in Galway.
