YOU VOTED FOR them on Friday.
The laborious count process continues today.
Local and by-election counts started yesterday morning, while this morning ballot boxes for the Euros were opened at 9am today.
Once again, TheJournal.ie is in the count centres and online all the way until the wee hours to keep you company.
The main points so far:
Morning, Daragh Brophy here at TheJournal.ie HQ, keeping you updated on all the latest from the the ongoing local election results, and the three European election count centres in the RDS in Dublin, Nemo Rangers’ in Cork and the Royal Theatre in Castlebar.
It’s going to be another long day…
One thing that’s worth remembering today — no results can be officially announced in the Euros until after 10pm tonight.
We’re barred from confirming anything by the European Commission until the last polls close in the last country voting.
Italy, in this case…
Some more local election results coming in…
But it could be a long day in Donegal, according to Highland Radio’s News Editor…
“On the highways and the by-ways and up and down the lanes and the botharíns and into the backlanes of every town and village in the county… We know every one of them. We know the people. They know us.
“We’ll never shut off our phone… We’ll stay with the people. Other parties have forgotten about the people, and they’re thinking about Dublin and they’re thinking about airy-fairy ideas.
“All we want to do is to help the people that are suffering, and if God spares to help us we’ll continue to do that while we can.”
— A quote from a member of which well-known Irish political dynasty, upon his re-election?
Your answer… (Of course)
(Youtube: Don MacMonagle)
Stray observation: We’re not entirely sure, but doesn’t it look as if Danny shuts off his phone just as he says ‘we’ll never shut off our phone’?
This is encouraging news…
Some posters being taken down already in Dublin city centre.
[image: Conor Crowther, via email (daragh@thejournal.ie)]
Let’s hope they take all remnants with them too…
Read our columnist Aaron McKenna’s views on “the scourge of cable ties” here…
Pat Rabbitte’s been asked whether he thinks people who voted Labour in 2011 are due an apology.
Here’s what he said:
“The party made some commitments that it wasn’t able to deliver on.
I’m sorry we weren’t able to deliver on them.
“I would love to have been able to deliver on them. I would love to have spared the people hardship especially those who have borne the brunt of the hardship.”
More here…
More results from the council counts.
Don’t forget, you can check our exhaustive (and exhausting) list of everyone elected to the local authorities so far here…
…the epic undertaking that is Count 2014 continues.
You may have missed this bit of news from last night…
Whis is TR Dallas you say?
Good to see the councils getting the message out re: cable ties…
“I’ll be keeping a million miles away from extreme right wing Euro-sceptics.
I think it’s time we had a far more compassionate Euro-scepticism that questions where the European Union is going without giving different various different nationalities a kicking, because it shouldn’t be about that.
— Luke ‘Euroming’ Flanagan - who’s expected to take a seat in Brussels based on the European exit polls - speaks to Newstalk on the issue of which grouping he plans align himself with.
A glance at the overall picture in the local election count…
In the words of the New Jersey-based political scientist John Francis Bongiovi, “we’re halfway there”…
Just 50 per cent of the 949 local authority seats on offer this time out are now filled.
By the way, there’s another important European election under way today…
Ukraine is voting in a presidential election seen as the most important in the country’s history…
The latest here.
What now for the Government, based on the ‘clear’ message from the electorate?
Some analysis from our Political Editor…
DURING A TESTY interview with Newstalk late last night Taoiseach Enda Kenny repeatedly said that the government had heard the message of the electorate “loud and clear”.
But why has it taken so long to hear that message given that many of the issues facing canvassers on doorsteps up and down the country over the last few weeks have been well flagged for, in some cases, years?
For example, TDs up and down the country had been hearing and telling the Dáil about some of the most awful cases of medical cards being taken from very sick children and adults for well over a year.
Read the full piece here, and get all the latest on the various counts from Hugh “I like Vines” O’Connell on Twitter…
I am what I am, and I am what I’ve always been.
— Mary Hanafin, whose candidacy in the Battle of Blackrock was the subject of controversy and led to a spat with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, says she expects she’ll be included in the party’s stats when they’re rounding up their wins in the local elections.
On the subject of whether there’ll be two candidates for FF in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown in the next General Election (for instance, herself and fellow Blackrock winner Kate Feeney)…
Absolutely not.
But she wouldn’t be drawn on whether she’d run.
She also said…
I’ve absolutely no gripe with Micheál Martin.
Speaking to Newstalk.
Well this is interesting…
A quick pull-back to look at the wider European view…
While the voting’s been done and dusted here since Friday night, most European countries are only going to the polls today in the EU elections.
Germany, France, Poland and Spain are among the 21 countries voting for members of the European Parliament.
Social Democratic top candidate for Europe (SPE) Martin Schulz , member of the SPD party in Germany, and his wife Inge cast their votes in a ballot box at a polling station in Wuerselen, Germany [PA]
More from the BBC…
Once again, returning officers here can’t announce any official results until the polls close on the continent, at 10pm Irish time.
Then again, that may not be much of an issue.
From TheJournal.ie‘s reporter in Castlebar…
Yikes.
Then again, it’s a massive constituency.
Alright, time for a quick look at the latest from the local counts.
Results coming thick and fast now…
Don’t forget, we’re constantly updating our list of who’s been elected where…
By the way…
The Taoiseach’s brother, Henry Kenny, has been elected in Castlebar.
His council seat had been in doubt…
More from Ming ‘Euroming’ Flanagan from our reporter at the Midlands-Northwest count centre in Castlebar…
We’ve been waiting for 100 years for someone to come along and save us. I think we’ve worked out that no one is going to come along and save us.
“We’ve got to do it ourselves. We’ve got to put our name on the ballot paper and we’ve got to try and change things. Rather than say ‘There’s no one on the ballot paper to vote for. Boo hoo, poor me.’”
Read the full piece here…
Ming looks destined to take a seat in the massive 15 county constituency, based on exit polls.
He’s gone the distance, and it looks like it paid off for Fine Gael’s Kenny ‘Call me Kenneth’ Egan…
More on those ‘leadership bid’ comments from Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness this morning…
RTÉ’s Paschal Sheehy, at the Cork count centre, says we can expect results of a first count in Ireland South at around 9pm tonight.
Talk about picking up a metaphor and running with it…
RTÉ’s Claire Byrne mentioned the concept of a ‘pot of gold’ in an interview with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the last few minutes…
By our calculations, he mentioned at least five times in the remainder of the exchange that there were not pots of gold available.
None.
“There aren’t any,” he said.
More here..
By the way, the Taoiseach was speaking to RTÉ from the Euro elections count centre in Castlebar…
There were some protesters lying in wait for him at the Royal Theatre, but he managed to avoid them.
From our reporter there…
We’ve almost 500 seats filled in the council elections so far (out of a total of 949 available)
For our full list, and to check out who’s made it in your area, once again click here.
Some of the latest bits of news from around the country…
And some interesting news from Galway…
Speaking at the RDS, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said the party didn’t have enough candidates to capitalise on the rise in its vote across the country in the local elections.
We didn’t have the candidates, we didn’t have the structure we didn’t have the capacity in many areas.
If we had been able to run more – and we knew this – we would have got more votes. But it’s a building process.
By the way — away from the world of politics, Gerry’s also been giving us an insight into what else he’s been up to this weekend, via Twitter…
He also referenced SF’s surge in the locals, Tweeting this link…
FF’s Mary Fitzpatrick, battling for the third European seat in Dublin, has arrived at the count centre in the RDS.
She says it’s a ten year project to rebuild Fianna Fáil in Dublin, and that a doubling of the party’s number of councillors in the capital is a positive outcome from the election.
“I believe those who are elected for Fianna Fáil, the doubling of our representation on the city council, that is going to be good for Dublin and I think it puts us in a good position to build.”
And in terms of her own chances…
“We just have to count the votes now.”
Exit polls yesterday showed her in contention for a Brussels seat, in a tight group of third-place competitors led by the Greens’ Eamon Ryan.
Away from the candidates, it’s also a big day for the country’s 25-odd local commercial radio stations…
The news staff are VERY excited in Limerick this afternoon…
But in Shannonside, not so much…
We know the feeling.
It’s going to be another long night again, by the looks of things.
Right.
Time for a quick reset…
Counting for the local elections is still going on.
We now have over 523 seats filled. Sinn Féin and independents have been surging in the council vote, while Labour have been taking a battering.
Today, Paul Gogarty (the former Green TD) and Kenny Egan (the Olympic silver medal winning boxer) are amongst the high profile candidates to gain seats.
The European counts got under way this morning.
We have some idea of how the top votes will go in each of the three constituencies based on exit polling, but it will be a long time before anything’s decided.
In terms of first count times, here’s the latest estimates for completion…
Dublin: Inside the next hour (around the 4pm mark)
South: Around 9pm tonight
Midlands-Northwest: Not till tomorrow afternoon
That said, don’t get too excited.
Returning officers can’t say anything official until the final votes are cast in elections on the continent…
10pm Irish time.
Oisín Quinn‘s still wearing the chains of office, in spite of losing his seat on Dublin City Council (he remains Lord Mayor for the moment you see, despite the defeat).
Quinn and his Labour colleague Joe Costello (husband of MEP Emer, who’s not doing well electorally) were putting a brave face on for the media at the Phoenix Park this afternoon…
And so the epic count continues.
In order to ward-off any mid-afternoon slump, we’ve decided to start compiling a Euro election based soundtrack.
Based on Ming’s stellar showing in Midlands-Northwest to date, and Enda’s comments earlier, here’s our suggestions…
Tweet your suggestions to…
@DaraghBroph (whose knowledge of popular culture appears to have ground to a halt at some stage in late 1983, apparently)
Some interesting insight from our Political Editor Hugh O’Connell, at the RDS…
“One thing everyone in the coalition appears to be agreed on this weekend is the need for change, renewal, and – according to some Fine Gael backbenchers I’ve been speaking – a reshuffle.
A change-up of Cabinet ministers appears likely in the coming weeks and it could become more radical than we previously thought with no minister safe.
Follow Hugh on Twitter here…
In the North, meanwhile…
The DUP secured the highest number of council seats. Peter Robinson’s party claimed 130 of the seats on offer, followed by Sinn Féin on 105.
The UUP filled 88 seats, followed by the SDLP on 66 and the Alliance on 32.
Counting for the 462 seats available finished in the early hours of the morning.
European counting begins tomorrow…
[More from the BBC]
A succinct Tweet from Ocean FM current affairs presenter Niall Delaney…
Alright, this is bizarre….
Details of a vote of a different kind taking place in Spain today.
From Associated Press:
Voters in the tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios, whose name means “Camp Kill Jews,” cast ballots Sunday to determine whether its name should be changed.
Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez said results were expected late Sunday night after a count of the voting at the village with 56 registered voters about 260 kilometers north of Madrid.
Documents show the town’s original name was Castrillo Motajudios, meaning “Jews’ Hill Camp.”
The “Kill Jews” part of the name dates from 1627, more than a century after a 1492 Spanish royal edict ordering Jews to become Catholics or flee the country. Those who remained faced the Spanish inquisition, with many burned at the stake.
Although Jews were killed in the area, researchers believe the town acquired its current name from Jewish residents who converted to Catholicism and wanted to reinforce their repudiation of Judaism to convince Spanish authorities of their loyalty, Rodriguez said.
Others suspect the change may have come from a slip of the pen.
Another quick glance around the country.
From Today FM political correspondent Gavan Reilly in Dublin…
News from Cork from Sinn Féin press officer Darren O’Keeffe…
And from the horse’s mouth so to speak, from former Greens’ senator Dan Boyle, following his elimination…
It appears all may be forgiven, as far as the Irish electorate is concerned…
That’s seven councillors in total for the Greens‘ this time out.
Paul Gogarty, the former Green TD, also claimed a seat in South Dublin earlier while the party’s leader Eamon Ryan is in contention for the third Dublin seat.
Away from the election, there’s still a massive ship stuck at the mouth of the Boyne.
More from our Nicky Ryan here…
Apparently, it had been hoped a rising tide last night would have freed it… but it didn’t.
Insert your own recession-based analogy here.
Trying to think of a Europe-based meal to whip up tonight?
Irish chef Clodagh McKenna’s been busy in Brussels…
Any suggestions for meals, based on the results here in Ireland?
The late afternoon slump’s kicked in here, and we can’t think of any good puns.
‘Battered something’ in light of how Labour’s doing? That’s as good as it gets.
Hmmm.
By the way, in case you missed what Enda Kenny’s been saying at the Castlebar count centre this evening…
Asked about a possible future coalition with Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil, he said:
Who knows what the future holds in politics? People here are masters in the democratic situation – they make the decisions. We’ll wait and see what result there comes [in the General Election].
He also thinks it’ll be a “humdinger” of an election.
A humdinger.
A snapshot of the country…
There’s DRAMA in Kerry…
There’s DRAMA in Tipp…
There’s TONNES of drama in Ennis….
In Waterford…
…not so much.
Tally ho…!
That is, we’ve some news of a tally, from Midlands-North West.
According to RTÉ News, Ming ‘Euroming’ Flanagan and Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy are close together at the top of the pile (18.6 per cent and 18.2 per cent respectively).
Mairead McGuinness of FG is on 14.8 per cent, while FF’s Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne are vying for the fourth seat on 8.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.
However, heading into the weekend, the candidates have been warning that Euro tallies may not be all that reliable, and the broadcaster notes that the tally comes with a “health warning”.
There are a lot of health warnings around today.
Meanwhile…
This is how the European Parliament have been attempting to convince young people to turn out and vote…
“Voting for the first time can be a real adventure,” they say.
Your taxes paid for that.
Just yours.
In fact, the European institutions have been frittering away all of your taxes on increasingly frivolous projects ever since you started working.
Contrasting scenarios in two Ulster counties…
They’re done and dusted in Cavan, with all 18 seats filled…
In Donegal, they only had their first result earlier this afternoon.
There’s now just three seats filled.
Once again, catch up on who’s been elected to every single seat in the country here.
Success for another Irish political dynasty today…
Son of the former Fine Gael minister.
WHAT!?
It’s an all-male fronted Six One tonight, apparently.
As we head into another long night of counting, Dobbo kicks off the RTÉ early evening roundup with a rundown of the council vote so far…
[RTÉ/Screengrab]
Don’t forget, you can read our exhaustive list of all the local authority seats filled here…
At the Phoenix Park, outgoing Labour councillor (but still Lord Mayor) Oisín Quinn says he believes the party suffered a backlash as a result of several tough budgets…
That’s a sombre-looking Joe Costello (junior minister and husband of Emer) standing beside him.
Michael McNamara, a Labour TD from Clare, says it may be time for the party’s entire front bench to go.
“We need our leaders to show some leadership now or else get off the field and clear the way for someone who will show some leadership,” the Clare Champion reports him as saying.
Exit poll news from Germany.
From AFP:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives were on course for major victory in European Parliament elections on Sunday, despite gains for the centre-left Social Democrats and the rise of a new anti-euro party, exit polls showed.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU — who won a landslide victory at the national level last September — between them scored 36 percent, down from 37.9 percent in the 2009 European parliament vote, the polls showed.
Their new governing partners in a ‘grand coalition’, the Social Democrats (SPD), scored 27.5 percent, a strong gain from the last EU vote in 2009 when they won 20.8 percent, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF estimated.
Since teaming up with Merkel, the party has pushed social reforms including a national minimum wage in Germany. It also boasted among its ranks the European candidate for European Commission president, Martin Schulz.
The election saw a new anti-euro party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), make its entry into the European Parliament with 6.5 percent of the vote, exit polls said.
The AfD celebrated the result as a popular endorsement of its demands, including Germany’s return to the Deutschmark and the orderly dissolution of the euro common currency system.
“The AfD in this election blossomed into a new people’s party in Germany, as a liberal party, as a social party, and as a value-oriented party,” said party leader Bernd Lucke, an economics professor.
Germany, the most populous country in the EU, sends 96 legislators to the European Parliament.
Angela will be relieved this evening so…
Micheál Martin’s response to the comments from John McGuinness earlier.
The PAC Chairman said he would consider a leadership bid if there was no change of direction at the top.
I’m very surprised at that.
[RTÉ/Screengrab]
More on those John McGuinness remarks from our Political Editor Hugh O’Connell at the RDS.
Micheál Martin isn’t the only one to be left surprised at John McGuinness’s intervention today.
Several Fianna Fáil people I’ve spoken to today have expressed surprise at McGuinness’s intervention, believing it to be ill-timed and a misread of the general mood in the party after what has been a good local election.
One senior FF person I spoke to agreed that it was “bizarre” for McGuinness to call into question Martin’s leadership at this time.
Follow Hugh on Twitter for the latest from the Dublin Euro count.
Hi – it’s Susan Daly here with you for the rest of the evening (and into the wee hours, if last night’s frenetic counting is repeated!).
Now a little birdie in the RDS is telling us that there are some indications – and this comes with a health warning – that the 1. 2. 3. of first preferences in the Euros is looking to be Lynn Boylan (SF), Brian Hayes (FG) , Eamon Ryan (Green).
And we’re not the only one to believe those tallies may be on the spot.
From our Political Ed in the RDS, Hugh O’Connell:
Emer Costello has all but conceded here: “If the indications that are there in the exit poll and the tallies that I’ve seen certainly it does look like it’s going to be a hill that’s that bit too steep to climb.”
Recounts have been the bane of the count centre teams’ weekend…
In Gorey, Wexford a recount has just begun; in Listowel, Kerry, independent Michael O’Gorman has just been granted a full recount because there were just 5 votes between him and Labour’s Pat Leahy for the last seat.
We would like to build count centre staff something like this. Only for ballot papers , not dollars.
Hugh O'Connell / TheJournal.ie Hugh O'Connell / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie
Sometimes that happens, the wind isn’t with you and it wasn’t with us on this occasion.
Emer Costello, pictured here with her husband, Minister Joe Costello, at the RDS this evening where tallies and exit polls give the appearance that she might be out of a running for a Euro seat.
Read more from her interview with Hugh here.
Lest we forget, we are not alone in Europe tonight.
Polls are closed in France, Spain, Romania, Portugal and Denmark now.
And an interesting level of engagement in Germany…
Goodness gracious.
Emer Costello REALLY does think it’s all over for her.
Here she is having a group hug with her election team and thanking them even though “it didn’t work out.”
Oh well spotted, that woman.
OH NO. Let this not be the 2014 version of 2009′s Lisbon II ‘wheelie bin’ controversy…
Five bags of European election votes have been found under a table in the RDS.
So they have to be counted into the tallies…
I think it’s time to check the state of play with the locals where counting is definitely going to continue into the wee hours – and some are only beginning tomorrow.
Saying that, over two-thirds of council seats are now filled, give or take a recount here and there.
The latest council to be fully filled is Tipperary County Council.
If you’re from Tipperary, you might feel a little emotional, remembering the glory days when there was a North Riding and a South Riding, and two great big ruddy councils to go with them.
A moment please:
The councils who have completed their counts are:
All current elected seats are visible on our candidate list here.
Westmeath County Council
Even though the hashtag #ThingsSlowerThanTheWexfordCount was trending on Twitter last night, Donegal and Longford were in fact slower to get the counts started.
BUT news just in that Donegal has filled the seats in all of one of its electoral areas, Stranorlar.
Hurray! Only 27 more seats to go then in that council….
A real onslaught of elected candidates just there. The latest count in Meath managed to finish off three electoral area counts in as many minutes – Ashbourne, Laytown-Bettystown and Navan.
Well done, Meath! Fewer than one quarter of the overall 40 council seats to go.
If – heaven forbid – you are wondering what else in the world, or Ireland for that matter, has happened today, we haven’t neglected you:
Check out our evening news fix, nattily titled ‘Here’s What Happened Today’.
Earlier today, results from exit polls in Europe were showing a definite swing to the left from voters.
However, exit polls from France - just emerging – is showing a different trend…
They have the right-wing National Front Party take the lead, scoring between 24% and 25% of the exit poll estimates. That is way ahead of the governing Parti Socialiste which is on 14%-15%.
Meanwhile, from Hugh O’Connell:
Here at the count centre in the RDS we’re waiting to hear if the returning officer thinks we can complete matters tonight or will be forced to return tomorrow.
Indications are now that the first count to be announced in around 90 minutes will not give Lynn Boylan enough to reach the quota and win a first European Parliament seat for Sinn Féin in Dublin. But she will almost certainly be elected at some stage in the next 24 hours.
Monaghan County Council count is now completed.
However, the ward of Ballybay-Clones – where Cllr Owen Bannigan sadly died on canvass on Friday – will be repolled on 7 June.
This was Marine Le Pen celebrating her National Front party’s huge success at the exit polls for France’s MEP vote today.
“Our people demand only one type of politics – a politics of the French, for the French and with the French.”
Read more here.
SO. Can we expect a first count from all three European constituency areas in Ireland tonight?
The short answer is no.
Dublin will announce a first count result tonight at 10pm.
Prediction: It looks like Lynn Boylan (SF) will not reach the quota at first count, but is likely to be elected first at some point. Tallies make it look like Brian Hayes (FG) and Eamon Ryan (Greens) will take the second and third seats.
South is looking like it will not be able to reveal a first count tonight – but will call a halt to counting at 11pm and restart at 9am tomorrow.
Prediction: Brian Crowley (FF) will do his usual sweep of the top spot, and tallies are indicating Liadh Ní Riada (SF) and Seán Kelly (FG) will take the second and third seats, although Deirdre Clune (FG) might still be in with a shout for the last seat.
Midlands-Northwest is also not going to bring home a first count tonight.
Prediction: However, as much reported, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (ind) is in the top polling spot there according to tallies and exit polls. The second seat should go to Mairead McGuinness (FG). The third seat could be a fight between Matt Carthy (SF) and Marian Harkin (ind)
Because the Dublin constituency looks to be the one that will announce some sort of result tonight (although not electing someone straight off), it’s rather busy and buzzy out there.
This is the tally topper Lynn Boylan (SF) just now:
Brian Crowley (FF), who looks set to return as an MEP in the South constituency, is playing it coy to Dobbo on RTÉ One right now, saying the constituency is too big to get a real sense of who is in, but that it looks like Fianna Fáil will take a seat.
Would that be you, enquires Dobbo. Crowley responds:
Well I would hope so. It looks very promising at the moment.
Marian Harkin, the independent, is telling Miriam O’Callaghan that her team did a tally over the 15 counties that are in the Midlands-Northwest constituency.
She’s not out yet, she feels, although she concedes that she will be fighting for the fourth and final seat with either Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher (FF) rather than Matt Carthy (SF).
She says ‘Ming’ Flanagan is well known by his name and has “swept” the tallies. “The tide was well and truly with him.”
Here’s a broader view of what all these wannabe MEPs are fighting towards – a place within the European Parliament.
And here are how the voting groups are looking in the next EP, according to exit polls:
European elections 2014: Still waiting for Dublin to announce the results of its first count – South and Midlands Northwest will stop counting at 11pm without a first count, resuming at 9am.
Meanwhile in Castlebar, the easiest way to transport that massive Midlands Northwest constituency’s vote around the count centre is by… supermarket trolley.
And in a world outside the RDS, Castlebar and Cork, Nick Griffin – chairperson of the British National Party – is getting used to the fact that he will no longer be an MEP:
Interesting to see that Ireland, in the last four EP elections, since 1999 has had a higher turnout for voting than the EU average:
Meanwhile, back in the local elections, this man has gotten a council seat himself in Donegal County Council.
He’s Micheal Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig (ind) and he came to our notice when he drew our attention to the state of the roads in west Donegal.
Read more about that story here.
This amuses us.
From Hugh O’Connell: “In the distance, a white van drives through the RDS count centre…”
DUBLIN FIRST COUNT – European elections 2014:
QUOTA – 88,144
The second count will presumably put Boylan into Europe – and the transfer of her surplus will give a better idea of who might capture the third seat (Brian Hayes of Fine Gael still looking a strong chance for the second seat).
Sinn Féin is looking likely to take Ireland’s first MEP seat in this election for Lynn Boylan in Dublin.
She says the party is not anti-Europe but takes each issue affecting citizens on their own merits.
Second count in Dublin has Lynn Boylan on 84,289 votes – she hasn’t made the quota yet (she’s still 4,353 votes away).
Brid Smith is now excluded as the third count goes ahead.
Meanwhile, here is Brian Hayes at the RDS, on course for the second seat in Dublin?
Meanwhile, we confess we did LOL at this:
This sheet from our Political Ed Hugh O’Connell shows the distribution of the votes from those candidates excluded at the end of the first count in Dublin:
As a matter of interest, when we told you that Cork and Castlebar were shutting up shop on their Euro counts for the night, we mentioned that they had to ‘secure’ the ballots to do so.
What does that mean? See our reporter Orla Ryan at the Midlands-Northwest count:
From Eoin Sheehy, who was in the Cork count centre:
Having started this morning at 9, they were only just finishing sorting an counting Brian Crowley’s votes about 3/4 of an hour ago when I was out there, they hadn’t even started on Ní Riadh, Crowley is an electoral vote hoover! :O
Lynn Boylan has been elected – first MEP to be elected in Dublin constituency and Ireland this year:
Emer Costello will be excluded from the next count.
Lynn Boylan, hoisted high in the RDS, on winning:
Vine: Hugh O’Connell
This is the state of the count now:
Not entirely unexpected.
We really hope that what we’re hearing about the count in Dublin isn’t true… that we’ll be here until 5am until the other two seats are filled…
We’re just going to focus on what all this is for, okay?
Don’t forget that the European Parliament is keeping an eye out on what is happening in Ireland.
Here is the breakdown of predictions for the #EP14 result on a party basis here:
The Dublin European election has had its fourth count, and it sees Paul Murphy of the Socialist Party eliminated on 41,373.
It now stands as:
The quota is 88,144 votes.
And now a word from our sponsors:
There’s that Nigel Farage, celebrating the rise and rise of UKIP today.
Read about that and other European election results across the EU here.
Meanwhile, Hugh O’Connell on THAT meeting tomorrow we mentioned earlier:
Taoiseach and Tánaiste are due to meeting tomorrow evening to discuss fallout from the election and a Cabinet reshuffle that looks likely to be much wider than previously expected.
Things are getting tough up in the Donegal count centre:
Good news from Dublin Euro count centre in RDS – count five results coming through in about four minutes….
So here we have it – Mary Fitzpatrick (FF) has been eliminated from the Dublin European Parliament race.
The stats for that fifth count were:
Brian HAYES (FG) 65,132
Nessa CHILDERS (Ind) 59,955
Eamon RYAN (Greens) 59,803
Mary FITZPATRICK (FF) 50,585
The redistribution of Mary’s vote will be, of course, the next crucial stage to decide the last two seats in the three-seater (Lynn Boylan having taken the first one, if you missed that…)
Mary Fitzpatrick and FF director of elections Timmy Dooley saying their goodbyes at the RDS:
And that fifth count shows just how narrow it all is now between Childers and Ryan:
From Hugh O’Connell in the RDS:
Extraordinary scenes here at the RDS as Nessa Childers, the independent MEP, takes a huge transfer from eliminated Socialist Paul Murphy and moves 152 votes ahead of Eamon Ryan.
With Fianna Fáil’s Mary Fitzpatrick eliminated it’s a question of where her transfers go. Childers isn’t even in the RDS tonight and her spokesperson says she won’t be arriving at any stage in the next few hours.
Good news, Wexford.
Your new county council is all set now that Gorey has finished counting.
Sleep well. For us.
(see all election results here)
The distribution of the eliminated Mary Fitzpatrick’s sizeable vote means that we’re in for a lengthy wait at the RDS. Estimates are that we’ll have a result at some stage between 4 and 5am…
Great news from Sligo – All counts now complete.
New council looks like this:
Sligo County Council (18 seats) COMPLETED
Ballymote-Tubbercurry (8) – Margaret Gormley (Ind) Michael Clarke (Ind), Joe Queenan (FF), Martin Baker (FF), Eamon Scanlon (FF), Jerry Lundy (FF), Paul Taylor (FF), Dara Mulvey (FG) Filled
Sligo (10) – Declan Bree (Ind), Seán MacManus (SF) Marie Casserly (Ind) Sinéad Maguire (FG), Rosaleen O’Grady (FF), Thomas Healy (SF), Tom MacSharry (FF), Hubert Keaney (FG), Seamus O’Boyle (PBP), Seamus Kilgannon (FF) Filled
And now Kildare is completed.
The smell of Monday morning upon us must be a tempting deadline…
Kildare County Council (40 seats) COMPLETED
Athy (6) – Martin Miley Jr (FF) Mark Wall (Lab) Mark Dalton (FF) Ivan Keatly (FG), Aoife Breslin (Lab), Thomas Redmond (SF) Filled
Celbridge-Leixlip (7) – Frank O’Rourke (FF), Anthony Larkin (Ind), Bernard Caldwell (Ind), Joe Neville (FG), Kevin Byrne (Lab), Ide Cussen (SF), Brendan Young (ind) Filled
Maynooth (9) – Brendan Weld (FG), Padraig McEvoy (Ind), Reada Cronin (SF), Teresa Murray (Ind) Tim Durkan (FG) Darragh Fitzpatrick (FF) John McGinley (Lab) Naoise O’Cearúil (FF) Paul Ward (FF) Filled
Kildare-Newbridge (9) – Susanne Doyle (FF), Fiona O’Loughlin (FF), Fiona McLoughlin-Healy (FG) Mark Lynch (SF), Joanne Pender (Ind), Paddy Kenneddy (Ind) Filled
Naas (9) – James Lawless (FF), Sorcha O’Neill (SF), Seamie Moore (Ind), Darren Scully (FG) Willie Callaghan (FF) Robert Power (FF), Anne Breen (Lab) Fintan Brett (FG) Billy Hillis (Ind) Filled
Fantastic.
Sixth count is in for Dublin in the European elections.
No-one is elected yet but there could be an interesting turn when it comes to whether Eamon Ryan or Nessa Childers takes the third seat. It looks most likely that Brian Hayes will take the second…
Someone might want to wake Nessa…
WE HAVE A SECOND SEAT IN DUBLIN.
Brian Hayes has, as expected, taken the second seat for Fine Gael.
HOWEVER, while Nessa Childers (ind) has been deemed elected to the third seat, it would seem that Eamon Ryan (Greens) wants a recount because it was very, very close.
vine.co/v/MwxgMtiQxee
(Sorry about the caps, we’ve been at this liveblog for 12 hours now).
There will be a RECOUNT in Dublin’s European election tomorrow, beginning at 2pm.
Eamon Ryan of the Green Party asked for it because he and Nessa Childers were very close for that third and final seat in the constituency.
To clarify, Eamon Ryan wants a recount in Dublin’s European election after Boylan, Hayes and Childers took the three MEP seats.
He will find out if his wish is granted by the returning officer at 2pm tomorrow in the RDS.
In the meantime, neither Hayes nor Childers are deemed to be elected until that is decided.
So stay tuned.
**********
We’re wrapping up our liveblog here for a few hours, but will be back with you for the last of the local elections – there are less than 50 seats of 949 to be filled.
And of course, the counts in the South and Midlands-Northwest will resume in earnest.
Goodnight/morning/week to you all.
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