The city of Galway was divided into three local electoral areas (LEAs) to elect councillors for a five-year term of office on the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV) Twenty-four-year-old Mairéad Farrell, a niece of Mairéad Farrell who was shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988, won a seat at the first attempt.

[1] She was joined on the council by 2 other councillors as Sinn Féin won 3 seats.

Their gains came chiefly at the expense of Labour who lost 3 fifths of their seats to return with just 2 councillors.

While Fianna Fáil won the most votes the party did not make any gains in the election and returned just 3 councillors as in 2009.

Independents were the big winners, topping the poll in all LEAs and increasing their existing numbers by 2 seats.