After two gruelling days of counting, hoping, wishing and waiting, the people of Carlow and Kilkenny have their five TDs.
Five seats were open for fourteen candidates and in the end, we returned three sitting TDs and two first-time TDs. But how and when did they get there?
Count 1: 1 elected, none eliminated
In a rare scene for Carlow-Kilkenny, we finished with Sinn Féin’s Kathleen Funchion first past the post by a considerable margin. Even on a short three-week campaign, the “Sinn Féin surge” took hold in both counties with Funchion amassing 17,493 first preference votes, leaving over 5,000 to spare from the quota of 12,274.
Count 2: 3 eliminated
The second count on Saturday sent three candidates home – Angela Ray (non party), Melissa O’Neill (Irish Freedom Party) and Helena Byrne (Renua). Between them they put 2,161 potential votes into play for the third count.
Count 3: 1 eliminated
The third count would bring about another elimination, this time in the form of Denis Hynes. Hynes had done well previously in the 2019 Local Election, holding onto the Labour support in North Kilkenny to shore up the seat vacated by Maurice Shortall. However, with national support for the party not quite there, Hynes bowed out with 2,721 votes to open up the fourth count.
Count 4: 1 eliminated
As we moved into the latter stages of Saturday evening, independent candidate Alan Hayes was next to go. Hayes only filed his papers hours ahead of the deadline and as a first time candidate managed to to secure 2,347 first preference votes, bolstered by over 1,300 transfers to take him to 3,710 before exiting the process.
@AlanHayes96 says he was very happy with his performance in his first General Election. He says it's good to get his name out there, he says he's inspired by the other candidates #ge2020 #cwkk pic.twitter.com/E0YxiMVLYp
— KCLR 96FM (@kclr96fm) February 9, 2020
Count 5: 1 eliminated
With Adrienne Wallace proving transfer friendly from Alan Hayes, it would be sitting Fine Gael councillor Patrick O’Neill departing the race on the fifth count. O’Neill amassed 3,674 first preference votes on a Fine Gael ticket that also included sitting TDs John Paul Phelan and Pat Deering.
Count 6: 1 elected, 1 eliminated
Into the very early hours of Sunday morning we saw John McGuinness collect the last of the transfers he needed to get across the line and continue his role as a Fianna Fáil TD. With just 73 transfers needed, McGuinness picked up 411 from the departing Patrick O’Neill to finish out on 12,612 votes.
With the bulk of O’Neill’s transfers going to John Paul Phelan (2,454) and Pat Deering (575), we saw Solidarity-People Before Profit’s Adrienne Wallace bow out, leaving 4,823 votes to play for.
The sixth count would be the last for Saturday before we returned to the count centre early on Monday morning. John McGuinness’ surplus would be held over in case it was needed at the end of proceedings.
Count 7: 1 eliminated
Beginning the count on Monday morning, all eyes were on Bobby Aylward and Malcolm Noonan for the fifth and final seat with the prediction that we wouldn’t be waiting long to see Jennifer Murnane O’Connor and John Paul Phelan elected.
For Noonan to continue in the race, he needed to pick up a lot of transfers from Adrienne Wallace and the lion’s share stayed to the left, the Green Party candidate collecting 2,095 votes to overtake Aylward in the race for the fifth seat.
Pat Deering, picking up 148 transfers from Wallace, was next to leave and put a potential 7,143 transfers into play.
Count 8: 2 elected, 1 eliminated
With four candidates in the race and three seats left to fill, we saw John Paul Phelan (13,172) and Jennifer Murnane O’Connor (12,839) elected over the quota on the eighth count.
That left one seat for two candidates – Bobby Aylward (FF) and Malcolm Noonan (FG). John Paul Phelan’s surplus of 898 votes came into play here to bring us to count nine.
Count 9: None elected
We thought we were done, but no. The ninth count saw Aylward collect 458 transfers from John Paul Phelan, bringing his tally to 9,632, with Noonan collecting 440, bringing his tally to 10,331. That meant a tenth count, with 699 votes separating the pair.
Jennifer Murnane O’Connor produced a surplus of 565 votes, with Aylward really needing the vasty majority of those to stay in the race, or at least to close the gap to less than John McGuinness’ surplus of 338 votes from Saturday night.
Count 10: 1 elected, 1 eliminated
In the end, the Fianna Fáil surplus from Murnane O’Connor was split around 60/40 in favour of Aylward, leaving an unsurmountable gap of 558 votes between Malcolm Noonan (GP) and Bobby Aylward (FF). Thus, Noonan fills the fifth and final seat.
Where all the votes went and where
Recap the whole lot, plus watch all the live video on our GE2020 election blog here.
