A ‘civil war’ has erupted in Fianna Fáil locally following the ‘changing of the guard’ in the Galway East constituency.
Party members ‘tore strips off each other’ at an explosive meeting last week to review the general election campaign and result.
And in a shock address to the Comhairle Dáil Cheantar (CDC), Noel Treacy, the party’s director of elections in the constituency, ‘turned on his own’ and lambasted party members for the “vilification” of sitting TD Colm Keaveney on the campaign trail.
Mr Keaveney, was the incumbent Fianna Fáil TD but was unseated by running-mate, first-time Dáil candidate, County Councillor Anne Rabbitte.
Mr Treacy, a former long-serving Galway East Fianna Fáil TD, in Kiltullagh last Thursday said Mr Keaveney, “was the victim of continuous, unnecessary negativity and vilification by people within our party, during the election campaign.”
In his report to the meeting, Mr Treacy said the recent election was the most “divisive and difficult” he has seen in half a century in Galway East.
But Deputy Rabbitte said she was “ambushed” at the CDC meeting to review the election.
She suggested the ‘old boys club’ in Fianna Fáil “didn’t like” that she won a seat and suggested that it was “sour grapes” on the part of Mr Treacy, whose report she described as “bitter”.
“I won’t apologise for winning a seat,” said Deputy Rabbitte.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune
The post Fianna Fail turns on itself over Galway East fall-out appeared first on Connacht Tribune - Galway City Tribune.