Commentary

‘Three “left” seats for the first time and the first constituency not to return either a Fine Gael or a Fianna Fáil TD’

There were no Constituency Commission boundary changes since 2007 and it remained a three-seat constituency.

This was one of Labour’s best performances in this election with the party’s vote up 23 points, its largest increase in support in this election and it managed to convert 1.7 quotas into two seats. Róisín Shortall put in one of the best performances of this election as she topped the poll with 1.1 quotas to take the first seat and she also managed to bring in a running mate. John Lyons was in the frame in third place on the first count with 0.6 quotas and was over 1,000 votes ahead of outgoing Minister Pat Carey and he increased his lead throughout the count and comfortably held off Fine Gael for the final seat.

Sinn Féin finally made the breakthrough in this constituency with Dessie Ellis delivering a seat. He had gone close in the past and was particularly disappointed in 2007 but he made no mistake in this election and was in second place with 0.9 of a quota on the first count and he comfortably took the second seat. Fine Gael decided to run two candidates and with just 0.7 of a quota between them Gerry Breen and Dr Bill Tormey were both outside the frame on the first count and both had less than half a quota and they duly failed to win a seat. Fine Gael has now failed to win a seat here since Mary Flaherty in 1992 and this constituency was the only one in the country not to return a Fine Gael deputy in 2011.

Noel Ahern retired at this election and fellow outgoing Fianna Fáil TD Pat Carey did poorly with the Fianna Fáil vote down a massive 37 points, the largest drop in support for Fianna Fáil in the country and the largest drop in the party’s history. Carey was outside the frame on the first count with just 3,869 votes. He was the final candidate eliminated and his transfers favoured Lyons and ensured his election.

The turnout was up seven points, one of the largest increases in this election.