
Councillor Niall Murphy
Councillor for Galway City West
Please contact me to discuss this selection campaign or any Green issues
Phone: 086 8399996
Email: niall.murphy@greenparty.ie
Local involvement
- Green Party active member and canvasser since 2003.
- Leading general election canvasses in 2020.
- Event Director for the annual Western Lakes and Atlantic Challenge cycling event.
- Fundraising for Down Syndrome Galway and the Galway Rape Crisis Centre.
- Coaching Salthill Knocknacarra underage hurlers since 2008.
- Juvenile Hurling Treasurer and Fundraising Officer from 2015-2018.
- Competitions Secretary for Galway City Harriers Athletic Club.
Local Campaigning
I have campaigned in several local and general elections for Niall Ó Brolcháin, Kieran Cunnane and more recently Pauline O’Reilly. I believe that my record of community involvement gives me the organisational skills and local knowledge to represent green views in Galway City West.
I always got a kick out of campaigning in my own local area of Salthill and Knocknacarra where I would often be known on the doorstep by parents of kids I have coached, or recognised by cyclists who had participated in an event I organised. I want to use this local connection to make myself accessible as a councillor and to ensure the Green Party has a familiar local face.
N6 Bypass Oral Hearing
The N6 bypass is bad for Galway at so many levels. My presentation to An Bord Planala at the recent oral hearing focused in particular on the damage to the Dangan sports-ground area.
- Impact of air and noise pollution on sport areas.
- Impact on water pollution of the Corrib.
- Biodiversity loss.
- Mental health impact due to loss of a greenspace which is an escape for walkers and joggers.
Career
- Lead Software Engineer at Cisco Ltd.
- Previously designed lung ventilators for Galway MedTech companies.
- Published one book and many articles on design safety.
Hearts & Minds
Leading engineering projects has taught me that the technical challenges are often the easy part – the real challenges are always about the people. Green Party policies provide a lot of technical answers, but we need to manage trade-offs and resources as we advocate for green positions at council level. We need a team that can translate those policies into council decisions and later into votes from the general public. I believe that, alongside Cllr Martina O’Connor, I will be able to deliver on that agenda and make sure the critical policies are brought forward.
The Personal Bit
I live in Salthill with my wife Una and three children. Una has served on parents committees in Scoil Íde, Salerno and Coláiste Éinde and as a mosaic artist she has decorated a number of local sites including the garden of the Eglington direct provision centre.
My Green View
When I worked on designing lung ventilators, I did not think those devices would be front page news in an epidemic. When I worked on messaging and video conferencing systems for Cisco I did not realize that the whole world would be using those systems to work and socialise from home.
As I look at a world in lockdown, there are fleeting benefits in terms of pollution and wildlife. We need to use what we learned from this crisis to make long term changes to Galway.
- Cycling infrastructure and habits will change during lockdown – and the city needs to keep them after.
- Encouraging working from home will benefit traffic and family life in the long run.
- Increase emphasis on local food security –allotments should never have been subject to the lockdown.
- Reduced mowing/hedgerow trimming has benefitted biodiversity – we must make the case that this can be a long term policy.
Cycling in Galway
As a keen commuting cyclist, I want to reduce the car dependency of Galway. Electric cars are an expensive, short term, solution to pollution. Galway needs to reduce cars, not replace them, in order to lower pollution and to reclaim the time lost to gridlock. I want to live in a town where kids are safe cycling to school and their parents are healthier cycling to work.
As event director for the annual Western Lakes and Atlantic Challenge cycling event (www.wlac.ie) I took great satisfaction from the number of novice cyclists it attracted – my priority was to promote more recreational cycling in Galway which leads to more people choosing to commute by bike. The biggest contribution we can make to bike safety is to have more bikes on the road so that other road users expect them at all junctions.
Along the way this cycling event raised funds for Down Syndrome Galway and the Galway Rape Crisis Centre. The event is organised in cooperation with Galway Bay Cycling Club and Salthill Knocknacarra GAA club.

Councillor Martina O’Connor
Councillor for Galway City Central
Please contact me to discuss any Green issues
Phone: 087 6467275
Email: martina.oconnor@greenparty.ie
Councillor Martina O’Connor representing City Central electoral area on Galway City Council. I live with my husband and five children in Shantalla, a very lovely part of the city with a vibrant sociable community with a mix of people of all ages, with a school, a park, a community centre and an active residents association.
Since being elected to Galway City Council in 2019 I worked alongside Pauline O’Reilly, together we represented the Green Party/Comhantas Glas and the people of the city who elected us.
Since Pauline’s success to the Seanad I work alongside Cllr Niall Murphy. I aim to keep the Green Party’s message and policys at the heart of all discussions and decisions made in Galway City Council.
I am Galway Green Partys delegate to Policy Council and a member of the Health Policy Review group and Animal Welfare policy group.
My particular areas of focus are Housing as a member of the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee and The Environment as Chairperson of The Environment , Recreation and Amenity SPC in Galway. I am also a member of Galway City Councils Audit Committee and Local Community Development Committee.
My background is in Nursing/Nurse management for the past thirty years. I have Chaired and been a member of three school management committees and been part of an amalgamation process of two secondary schools in Galway City. I worked as a La Leche League Leader for ten years supporting Breastfeeding.

Councillor Alastair McKinstry
Green Party Councillor, Galway County Council
Please contact me to discuss this selection campaign or any Green issues
Phone: 087 6847928
Email: amckinstry@cllr.galwaycoco.ie
I am a Climate Scientist at the Irish Centre for High-End Computing in NUI Galway. I lead the Environmental activities group, where we use supercomputers and novel computing to solve Irelands Environmental issues. I have been responsible for setting up the HARMONIE weather model used by Met Éireann, and am actively involved in climate modelling for the EPA.
Recently I have been working on including Satellite data and Earth observation and building up a team working on monitoring invasive species and water quality from space, and supporting small businesses using climate and Earth observation data to solve the problems to come.
After working half my career in the IT sector, at ICHEC/NUI Galway I work using Irelands Supercomputer facilities to help to predict and adapt to Climate Change: what the effects will be, what we need to do to mitigate and adapt to the changes that are coming.
Community Involvement
- Campaigner on Green issues since 1987.
- Branch Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers in NUI Galway, and current VP for Finance of IFUT.
- Member of the OneGalway campaign.
- Member of West Coast Wheelers cycling club.
- Member of Connemara Greenway Alliance, and Galway Cycling Campaign.
- Active Developer of open source software, Debian Linux developer.
My priorities
Sustainable travel in Galway County.
I am heavily involved in the council in supporting sustainable travel: campaigning for bus services, adding Park and Ride facilities and Greenways. Now that the Greens are in government, there is energy and support to implement these: from additional rural buses, through cycle paths and footpaths across the county. We need to make it possible for our children to get to school on their own, safely! – segregated lanes and footpaths are needed and now they are coming. Bus services also need to be increased as we come out of COVID.
Energy and Jobs
We have a huge amount of work to do, retrofitting houses to be warm, secure and affordable as energy prices rise; we need to prepare and enable local people to do this work. Retrofitting 2 million houses and buildings in Ireland takes tens of thousands of jobs, and I am working to help set up training in community groups and via the ETBs to bring that work to Galway.
Social Housing and Traveller issues
Within Galway County Council I have been advocating for more housing and supporting traveller accommodation. We need to make it possible to live in our villages, within walking distance of regular bus stops, and to be inclusive – I have supported Galway City council in its work to provide traveller accommodation (within the county) to replace the intolerable halting site at Carrowbrowne.
Flooding and Sea Level Rise
This is a key issue for me: we need to bring scientific expertise and prepare for our climate future. Long term planning is the remit of the council – we build roads, zone and build schools, houses, etc. and they need to be above sea level in the future! This means we need to consult with our villages and communities along Cois Fharriage about a new road, the new centres of our villages, ahead of the storms to come.
Personal
I moved to Galway from Stepaside in Dublin in the 1990s after graduating in Physics. My career started in Digital in 1995, where I met my partner Therese while volunteering in the Arts Festival. We moved to Moycullen in 1999, I support Therese as she works in Moycullen Brownies and Guides, and served on the Parents Committee of Scoil Bhaile Nua, where our three children went to school.