‘Fine Gael hold off independents for the final seat’
There were no Constituency Commission boundary changes here since 2007 and it remained a five-seat constituency.
Veteran Fine Gael TD Pádraic McCormack retired prior to the 2007 general election but was persuaded to run again and went on to retain his seat. He had decided to run again in 2011 but was beaten at the convention and finally retired. The Fine Gael vote was up ten points and with 1.8 quotas they should have been well placed for two seats but their vote was divided over four candidates and this led to them struggling for the final seat. Brian Walsh was in fourth place on the first count with 5,425 votes and he went on to take the third seat on the penultimate count. Their second candidate Sean Kyne had a much tougher battle. He was outside the frame in seventh place on the first count behind independent candidate Catherine Connolly and running mate Fidelma Healy-Eames. He battled with both of them throughout the count and was just 54 votes ahead of his running mate when she was eliminated at the end of the 11th count. He then fell behind Connolly on the 12th count and had to rely on a better share of Walsh’s small surplus to finally see off Connolly by a mere 17 votes. This was the closest winning margin of this election.
The long-serving Labour TD and former Minister Michael D Higgins retired at this election as he intends to seek the Labour nomination for the Presidential election. In his absence, the Labour party turned to councillor Derek Nolan and he put in an impressive performance and topped the poll with 7,489 first preferences and went on to take the second seat on the tenth count.
The Fianna Fáil vote was down 16 points and with just 1.3 quotas spread over their three candidates, one seat was as much as they could hope for. Outgoing Minister Eamon Ó Cuív was in second place on the first count with 7,441 and he went on to comfortably retain his seat on the eight count. Long serving TD Frank Fahey did poorly, winning just 6% and he was eliminated on the 7th count. Fianna Fáil’s third candidate, Michael Crowe got just 3% and was never in contention.
Noel Grealish was elected for the Progressive Democrats in 2007 but he became an independent on the dissolution of the party in 2009. He was in third place on the first count and went on to take the fourth seat on the final count.
Former Labour councillor Catherine Connolly was outside the frame in sixth place on the first count with just half a quota and she was just ahead of Kyne of Fine Gael. She battled with Fine Gael for the final seat but eventually lost out following a couple of recounts.
Sinn Fein’s Trevor Ó Clochartaigh doubled the party’s vote but with just 6%, was too far off the pace in eighth place. |