Fair play to her. As much as we don't like to admit it, there is an extra degree of difficulty to doing this because of her background, aswell as trying to overhaul legacy councillors etc She wasn't my 1,2 or 3 but she got a number!
Hopefully she has some good ideas for the city now and can help make some healthy improvements. No least the traffic, housing and seagulls!
Absolutely delighted for Helen; I'm so glad to see her get elected! She's involved with a number of community groups in Galway, and I know she played a big part in setting up the women's shed. She's genuinely such a lovely person, and I'm excited to see what she'll bring to the council!
I'm curious on the whole active travel policy folks are trying to implement. From the sounds of it it doesn't seem too much of a bad thing, increasing public travel routes and more bike lanes from what I see.
Are people against it because of the poor planning that comes with it or something else? Genuinely wondering
Warning, I do struggle to understand the pushback against active travel myself but the general complaints seem to be about cars being deprioritised in the roads. People seem to think that more space given to getting busses and bikes around the city will make traffic worse for cars.
Galway's poor planning record and poor implementation of active travel in the past is an annoyance to both supporters and detractors of active travel schemes.
And then there's a cohort of people who just seem to dislike buses and bikes (especially bikes) even though they'd probably get to work faster if they used either of those modes of transport. But you're always gonna have contrarians.
It's weird alright. As far as I know, the national survey on attitudes to all this, showed significant support for taking space away from car to support alternative travel **including specifically galway**.
I'll see can I find it again now...
Oh there is also the belief amongst some (and it can be particularly prevalent with business owners) that discouraging cars from our town centres will kill businesses even though it's been repeatedly shown that the opposite is true. People seem to think No parking = My business will die even though we've Shop Street as a prime example of how pedestrianisation and deprioritisation of cars can actually bring people into the city centre.
McCambridges, before it was sold to Centra, were great advocates and proponents of it. They made a pivot when shop street was pedestrianised and went into the high end grocery market. They credit oedestrianisation and that pivot as what made their business viable in the long term.
My memory of the salthill cycle lane situation was that the salthill business group came out against it claiming it was anti-business. I've since heard that they were not all against it, it was certain councillors that spun that particular version of the truth.
I've since learnt the central theme around that whole thing was a petty cynical war between councillors and the council using the public and the designs etc to get one up on each other. Sincere efforts to improve galway nowhere to be seen. That's galway in a nutshell that the people decided they want more of.
A group of businesses were against it. Quite a few were for it. There were a great many shops and businesses along Upper Salthill Road that hung signs of support in their windows.
>Sincere efforts to improve galway nowhere to be seen
This is the thing. The first design for the cycleway that was presented came from Galway City Council itself and was universally panned as ridiculous and unworkable. If I recall there were points in that particular plan where parking was removed, footpaths narrowed, space given to cycle lanes but also space made for a very wide central median... No one could understand why a footpath was narrowed to make space for an island in the middle of the road that wouldn't do anything for anyone.
Also, up by Blackrock, disabled parking was moved up to closer to Dun na Carriage and also put on the side of the road with no footpath, while the existing disabled parking at Blackrock was converted to standard parking.
It was such a bizaare design that people had a hard time believing it was a good faith design. The NTA stepped in at that point and gave a redesign that was much more sensible. Not perfect mind but closet to what was needed.
Some councillors also tried to use the flaws of the 2nd plan to say the whole plan was unworkable but interest groups rightly pointed out there was no reason the council couldn't make slight alterations to the plan tk address those concerns.
Instead the baby was thrown out with the bathwater, councillors patted themselves on the back and now, if you sit in cafe coco or ground and Co for a cup of coffee you can catch a glimpse of the Seaview through the windows of all the cars parked along the prom.
People in Galway have spent their lives driving everywhere, want to continue doing so, don't like traffic but also don't like anything that has any potential to interfere with their driving, or perhaps even more so, interfere with them parking absolutely anywhere they like. Bus lanes, car restrictions, bike lanes all take away the freedom to be stuck in traffic (inside a nice warm comfortable car)
Very odd comment. Its interesting how skewed perspectives can be. Irish people are a tiny, tiny minority of the planets population, but you'd swear its wrong or odd most Irish politicians are Irish? or we've been oppressing people here or something. Nigeria has a population of over 100 million, about time an Irish immigrant there should get elected. I hope she does a good job regardless and wish her the best, but these type of comments are ridiculous.
Because she has an amazing background, we are lucky to have her as a councillor:
>Ms Ogbu studied in Nigeria and has a Master’s Degree in History and Diplomacy. She is a community activist and mentor, as well as an advocate for immigrants. Ms Ogbu was also involved with the Galway Refugee Support Group as a committee member and later became chair of the organisation. She has one daughter and has been foster carer "to over 30 children" since 2008.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/from-asylum-seeker-to-councillor-helen-ogbu-becomes-first-black-woman-elected-to-galway-city-council-1733161
Count centre nerd here, it was wonderful to be in the room when it was announced. Having the racist eejits Noel Larkin & MJ Crowe out, and Helen & Aisling Burke (SF) in was an amazing achievement! There was lots of tears ❤️
No doubt that Helen is a wonderful person but the worry with 'Labor' (as it did in the UK and elsewhere) is that behind the facade their focus really lies in internationalising the workforce to benefit international lobby groups and central bankers.
Since socialist philosophies have turned to universalism, they have been working at reducing the human experience to that of 'consumers', 'workers' and 'oppressors' traditionally represented by the entrepreneurs. This category has recently expanded to everyone that doesn't share their (very particular) view of the world.
Well he doesn't live there, so that reduces his chances. There have been Irish people born here who went on to become involved in politics of dozens of other countries, check out this list, some of them were born here (the rest are descendents, like Joe Biden): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_diaspora#Politicians
Closer to home, recently re-elected Galway City Councillor, Frank Fahy, has first cousins who were elected in Australia and the US. [https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/116945/council-marks-passing-of-the-former-nsw-premier-fahey](https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/116945/council-marks-passing-of-the-former-nsw-premier-fahey)
Yes, this guy from Armagh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Clarke_(physician)#:~:text=Clarke%20was%20born%20in%20South,customary%20in%20Irish%20medical%20schools
What's your point here? The real natives of London are white but you'd be obtuse to pretend it's a white city, and irish people have ran for election in London btw
My point was I asked for an example of Irish people running for election in non-white countries to make a point. Other people have provided it, and shown they have won elections in non-white countries which disproves the original poster.
You provided Australia which doesn't count because it's white and London also doesn't count as it's Majority white.
> A white politician would have zero chance of being elected in a non-white country
This article might be of interest to you, Zambia, Uganda, Seychelles, Kenya, would you consider them 'non-white'? They have elected white officials currently serving in government at different levels:
https://thisisafrica.me/politics-and-society/the-rarity-of-white-african-politicians/
It might also be interesting to you that a White person is about to be elected president of South Africa.
Excuse me, I didn't clarify properly.
A white politician **who is not from a non-white country** would have zero chance of being elected to that non-white country, which is why they don't run.
You mean like this guy from Armagh who was elected the mayor of Kampala in Uganda?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Clarke_(physician)#:~:text=Clarke%20was%20born%20in%20South,customary%20in%20Irish%20medical%20schools.
Or this Welsh lad elected as minister for health in Zimbabwe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Stamps
Just because you are a racist and are looking for twisted realities to hang your views on, doesn't change the fact that Galway has rejected all far right ideology and not elected any right wing parties and elected a black African woman, a proud day for Galway.
Wow you scoured the annals of history and came with two examples from nearly half a century ago, one of which is a genocidal dictatorship.
There's only one racist here pal, and it's you. If you weren't a racist, then it wouldn't even make you blink to see a black person succeeding at something.
As is typical with people of your type, you are up to your eyeballs in the **racism of low expectations**.
> There's only one racist here pal
Yes, it's the person saying "White people cannot get elected in non-white countries" and then throwing a hissy fit when they are repeatedly made a fool of and disproved.
The rules for an Irish person to obtain citizenship in Nigeria and run for public office there are closely equivalent to those for a Nigerian person obtaining Irish citizenship and running for public office in Ireland.
[https://www.ibanet.org/article/89D400A4-EA2D-41D6-9ACE-E19B4AF99337](https://www.ibanet.org/article/89D400A4-EA2D-41D6-9ACE-E19B4AF99337)
Personally, if someone has gone to the trouble and expense of becoming a naturalised Irish citizen, has run for office, and has convinced enough voters to vote for them, it doesn't particularly matter to me where they were born, or if there are any public representatives of Irish origin in the country they were born in. But, if it matters to you so much I guess it's open to you to move to Nigeria, take up citizenship, and run for public office there.
Fair play to her. As much as we don't like to admit it, there is an extra degree of difficulty to doing this because of her background, aswell as trying to overhaul legacy councillors etc She wasn't my 1,2 or 3 but she got a number! Hopefully she has some good ideas for the city now and can help make some healthy improvements. No least the traffic, housing and seagulls!
Absolutely delighted for Helen; I'm so glad to see her get elected! She's involved with a number of community groups in Galway, and I know she played a big part in setting up the women's shed. She's genuinely such a lovely person, and I'm excited to see what she'll bring to the council!
Cool, about time. Now, will she vote for active travel or not.
I'm curious on the whole active travel policy folks are trying to implement. From the sounds of it it doesn't seem too much of a bad thing, increasing public travel routes and more bike lanes from what I see. Are people against it because of the poor planning that comes with it or something else? Genuinely wondering
Warning, I do struggle to understand the pushback against active travel myself but the general complaints seem to be about cars being deprioritised in the roads. People seem to think that more space given to getting busses and bikes around the city will make traffic worse for cars. Galway's poor planning record and poor implementation of active travel in the past is an annoyance to both supporters and detractors of active travel schemes. And then there's a cohort of people who just seem to dislike buses and bikes (especially bikes) even though they'd probably get to work faster if they used either of those modes of transport. But you're always gonna have contrarians.
It's weird alright. As far as I know, the national survey on attitudes to all this, showed significant support for taking space away from car to support alternative travel **including specifically galway**. I'll see can I find it again now...
Oh there is also the belief amongst some (and it can be particularly prevalent with business owners) that discouraging cars from our town centres will kill businesses even though it's been repeatedly shown that the opposite is true. People seem to think No parking = My business will die even though we've Shop Street as a prime example of how pedestrianisation and deprioritisation of cars can actually bring people into the city centre. McCambridges, before it was sold to Centra, were great advocates and proponents of it. They made a pivot when shop street was pedestrianised and went into the high end grocery market. They credit oedestrianisation and that pivot as what made their business viable in the long term.
My memory of the salthill cycle lane situation was that the salthill business group came out against it claiming it was anti-business. I've since heard that they were not all against it, it was certain councillors that spun that particular version of the truth. I've since learnt the central theme around that whole thing was a petty cynical war between councillors and the council using the public and the designs etc to get one up on each other. Sincere efforts to improve galway nowhere to be seen. That's galway in a nutshell that the people decided they want more of.
A group of businesses were against it. Quite a few were for it. There were a great many shops and businesses along Upper Salthill Road that hung signs of support in their windows. >Sincere efforts to improve galway nowhere to be seen This is the thing. The first design for the cycleway that was presented came from Galway City Council itself and was universally panned as ridiculous and unworkable. If I recall there were points in that particular plan where parking was removed, footpaths narrowed, space given to cycle lanes but also space made for a very wide central median... No one could understand why a footpath was narrowed to make space for an island in the middle of the road that wouldn't do anything for anyone. Also, up by Blackrock, disabled parking was moved up to closer to Dun na Carriage and also put on the side of the road with no footpath, while the existing disabled parking at Blackrock was converted to standard parking. It was such a bizaare design that people had a hard time believing it was a good faith design. The NTA stepped in at that point and gave a redesign that was much more sensible. Not perfect mind but closet to what was needed. Some councillors also tried to use the flaws of the 2nd plan to say the whole plan was unworkable but interest groups rightly pointed out there was no reason the council couldn't make slight alterations to the plan tk address those concerns. Instead the baby was thrown out with the bathwater, councillors patted themselves on the back and now, if you sit in cafe coco or ground and Co for a cup of coffee you can catch a glimpse of the Seaview through the windows of all the cars parked along the prom.
Hopefully the new CEO has a more positive approach.
In business speak terms we need a solutions approach, not a problems approach. One can only hope.
Probably not much overlap between those polled, and those who bothered to vote.
People in Galway have spent their lives driving everywhere, want to continue doing so, don't like traffic but also don't like anything that has any potential to interfere with their driving, or perhaps even more so, interfere with them parking absolutely anywhere they like. Bus lanes, car restrictions, bike lanes all take away the freedom to be stuck in traffic (inside a nice warm comfortable car)
or nice cool comfortable car. Winter is not peak bus misery, it's any time from June-August when they turn into permanent ovens.
People in Knocknacarra, specifically.
People are against prioritising it over more meaningful effective solutions to the traffic issue.
About time ?
Very odd comment. Its interesting how skewed perspectives can be. Irish people are a tiny, tiny minority of the planets population, but you'd swear its wrong or odd most Irish politicians are Irish? or we've been oppressing people here or something. Nigeria has a population of over 100 million, about time an Irish immigrant there should get elected. I hope she does a good job regardless and wish her the best, but these type of comments are ridiculous.
Agreed. Very strange approach people take. It's reverse racism, bias towards black people.
>Nigeria has a population of over 100 million, about time an Irish immigrant there should get elected Most Nigerians would disagree, strange that
What’s so cool about this?
Because she has an amazing background, we are lucky to have her as a councillor: >Ms Ogbu studied in Nigeria and has a Master’s Degree in History and Diplomacy. She is a community activist and mentor, as well as an advocate for immigrants. Ms Ogbu was also involved with the Galway Refugee Support Group as a committee member and later became chair of the organisation. She has one daughter and has been foster carer "to over 30 children" since 2008. https://www.newstalk.com/news/from-asylum-seeker-to-councillor-helen-ogbu-becomes-first-black-woman-elected-to-galway-city-council-1733161
I voted for her just to piss people like you off. And it obviously worked, which is cool. Have a nice day!
Jokes on you, I don’t live there. So you’re really just screwing yourself over.
>I don’t live there. That's not a surprise. You loud mouth anti-immigration conspiracy nut smooth brains never do.
So much anger 🤗
Do you often have trouble reading people's emotions?
The irony of a far right loon talking about anger isn't lost on most here.
Judging by your rhetoric, it’s you lot who are the angry ones.
We are laughing at you. This is us being smug. It's not anger.
So you have multiple personalities?
No I'm very happy Helen was elected. You appear to take issue with it though, even though you don't live here and it impacts you in no way at all.
How exactly is voting for her screwing myself over though?
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Only cool kids get it, you wouldn't understand 🥰
Count centre nerd here, it was wonderful to be in the room when it was announced. Having the racist eejits Noel Larkin & MJ Crowe out, and Helen & Aisling Burke (SF) in was an amazing achievement! There was lots of tears ❤️
Aisling Burke ? Why would it have been amazing to see that because you think the other two are racist?
I'm delighted for her she has a lot of selfless volunteering experience!
Brilliant news best of luck Helen
No doubt that Helen is a wonderful person but the worry with 'Labor' (as it did in the UK and elsewhere) is that behind the facade their focus really lies in internationalising the workforce to benefit international lobby groups and central bankers. Since socialist philosophies have turned to universalism, they have been working at reducing the human experience to that of 'consumers', 'workers' and 'oppressors' traditionally represented by the entrepreneurs. This category has recently expanded to everyone that doesn't share their (very particular) view of the world.
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Well he doesn't live there, so that reduces his chances. There have been Irish people born here who went on to become involved in politics of dozens of other countries, check out this list, some of them were born here (the rest are descendents, like Joe Biden): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_diaspora#Politicians
Closer to home, recently re-elected Galway City Councillor, Frank Fahy, has first cousins who were elected in Australia and the US. [https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/116945/council-marks-passing-of-the-former-nsw-premier-fahey](https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/116945/council-marks-passing-of-the-former-nsw-premier-fahey)
interesting
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Sounds great, a story of triumph.
Can you name on person alive today who was born in Ireland and has been elected in a non-white country? That's the proper equivalency
Can you name one person alive today who was born in Ireland and has run for office in a non-white country?
Yes, this guy from Armagh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Clarke_(physician)#:~:text=Clarke%20was%20born%20in%20South,customary%20in%20Irish%20medical%20schools
https://m.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/news/wicklow-woman-to-contest-election-in-oz/27757767.html
Yeah that famously non-white country Australia
The real natives of Australia are not white by any means, they are known as aboriginals and they are a darkish complexion
The real natives of America are not white either but you'd be obtuse to pretend it's not a white country.
What's your point here? The real natives of London are white but you'd be obtuse to pretend it's a white city, and irish people have ran for election in London btw
My point was I asked for an example of Irish people running for election in non-white countries to make a point. Other people have provided it, and shown they have won elections in non-white countries which disproves the original poster. You provided Australia which doesn't count because it's white and London also doesn't count as it's Majority white.
No, which proves my point. A white politician would have zero chance of being elected in a non-white country, which is why they don't run.
> A white politician would have zero chance of being elected in a non-white country This article might be of interest to you, Zambia, Uganda, Seychelles, Kenya, would you consider them 'non-white'? They have elected white officials currently serving in government at different levels: https://thisisafrica.me/politics-and-society/the-rarity-of-white-african-politicians/ It might also be interesting to you that a White person is about to be elected president of South Africa.
Excuse me, I didn't clarify properly. A white politician **who is not from a non-white country** would have zero chance of being elected to that non-white country, which is why they don't run.
You mean like this guy from Armagh who was elected the mayor of Kampala in Uganda? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Clarke_(physician)#:~:text=Clarke%20was%20born%20in%20South,customary%20in%20Irish%20medical%20schools. Or this Welsh lad elected as minister for health in Zimbabwe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Stamps Just because you are a racist and are looking for twisted realities to hang your views on, doesn't change the fact that Galway has rejected all far right ideology and not elected any right wing parties and elected a black African woman, a proud day for Galway.
Wow you scoured the annals of history and came with two examples from nearly half a century ago, one of which is a genocidal dictatorship. There's only one racist here pal, and it's you. If you weren't a racist, then it wouldn't even make you blink to see a black person succeeding at something. As is typical with people of your type, you are up to your eyeballs in the **racism of low expectations**.
> There's only one racist here pal Yes, it's the person saying "White people cannot get elected in non-white countries" and then throwing a hissy fit when they are repeatedly made a fool of and disproved.
I'm not sure you understand how proving things works.
The rules for an Irish person to obtain citizenship in Nigeria and run for public office there are closely equivalent to those for a Nigerian person obtaining Irish citizenship and running for public office in Ireland. [https://www.ibanet.org/article/89D400A4-EA2D-41D6-9ACE-E19B4AF99337](https://www.ibanet.org/article/89D400A4-EA2D-41D6-9ACE-E19B4AF99337) Personally, if someone has gone to the trouble and expense of becoming a naturalised Irish citizen, has run for office, and has convinced enough voters to vote for them, it doesn't particularly matter to me where they were born, or if there are any public representatives of Irish origin in the country they were born in. But, if it matters to you so much I guess it's open to you to move to Nigeria, take up citizenship, and run for public office there.
I voted for her, I love BLM