On 1 August, a protest was held by far-right activists in Galway against Galway’s new Nigerian-born Mayor, Helen Ogbu, claiming that she had lied about her immigration to Ireland and shouldn’t be allowed to be the mayor of Galway. This was swiftly met with an anti-racist counterprotest which managed to mobilise many more people to come out in defence of Ogbu and against the spreading of racist and hateful rhetoric in Galway.
Helen Ogbu is a member of the Labour Party who was elected to Galway City Council in 2024. On 19 June 2026, Ogbu was announced as the new Mayor of Galway City. This saw her become the first person of colour and the first person with a migrant background to hold the position in Galway.
Following her appointment as Mayor, people noticed that Ogbu’s website contained statements that did not match the facts. The website stated that Ogbu had sought asylum in Ireland as the result of the murder of her husband Sunny Ogbu, despite those two things not happening in that order. This was proven to be merely a clerical error that was really of little importance, however those on the right used this to try and “justify” their racist beliefs with people going to Ogbu’s house, harassing her about the details of her migration.
The far-right used this story to try to claim that the new Mayor had lied in her documentation or had simply been lying to the people of Galway for years. They asserted that Helen Ogbu shouldn’t be allowed to hold the position of Mayor. Despite their justification being wrong in both a moral and literal sense, this did not stop the far-right from using the story to push for a racist reaction.
The Protest
It was pure racism, but the far right went ahead and organised a protest to demand her removal. This did not stop many involved from referring to it as a “cost-of-living” protest, despite the fact that when they finished their march and began to speak, the cost of living was hardly mentioned.
The protest began on one side of Galway City Centre, with protesters marching through the middle of the city to the Galway County Council building. It must be noted that Helen Ogbu is a City Councillor and thus doesn’t sit in the County Council building, so if they were trying to make a statement to the Mayor herself, they went to the wrong place.
A counter-protest was swiftly organised, and it met up in a park across the road from where the far-right had planned to start their protest. It drew a much larger crowd, with most people arriving an hour before the actual protest started. There was a great atmosphere with people making signs together and singing songs. People came from all across Galway, as well as two women who came all the way down from Donegal to reinforce the idea that there is much more joy to be found in less hate.
When the far-right protest began, they were separated by Gardaí. They continued their journey to the county council building with the counter-protest following closely behind. When they got to the County Council building, the fascists set up a microphone and speaker to deliver speeches on how they needed to “take Ireland back” and how their side was “on the rise”.
Their speeches could hardly be heard thanks to the chanting of the counter-protesters. The bigger numbers showed that it is easier to build a base against hate than it is to build a base on hate. This shows the importance of counter protesting, it shows to the people that suffer from bigotry and racism that the majority of people support them and that Ireland is a safe and welcoming place. Counter protests allow us to show that the far-right won’t get away with spreading hateful messages and they won’t get away with hiding their racism and using it to go after the most vulnerable in society.
Galway stands as the most diverse city in Ireland outside of Dublin. Diversity is something to be celebrated, and the country is better for it.
We want Ireland to continue as a place where people can be safe from the same struggles that we once faced.
As James Connolly said, “Let no Irishman throw a stone at the foreigner; he may hit his own clansman”.
