Colin Sheridan: Voters grow weary of feeling left behind by politicians

In An Cheathrú Rua, there is a lingering sense among many voters that politics happens around them rather than with them

Spend a morning walking around An Cheathrú Rua and a pattern quickly emerges. The same frustrations surface repeatedly, regardless of age or background. Young people spoke about housing and planning frustrations. Older residents spoke about decline, neglect and mistrust.  File picture

The road into An Cheathrú Rua bends westward through rock and bog before opening out into the village itself - a place suspended between endurance and uncertainty. 

Outside the cafés and shops, people moved at an unhurried pace, stopping to talk in doorways or leaning into conversations over takeaway coffees. Eight days before the Galway West by-election, there was little obvious sign that an election was imminent.