Analysis: New Cork City Council takes shape as political stories continue

AS in any election, the numbers from the Cork City Council elections offer a stark balance sheet of wins and losses, but they don’t do justice to the human stories behind the figures, or the dramas thrown up by the vagaries of our voting system.

When the dust settled on City Hall in the small hours of yesterday morning, Fianna Fáil had nine seats, up two, Fine Gael five, down two, Sinn Féin four, no change, Independents four, down two, and the Greens three, no change.

Labour had three seats, up two, People Before Profit-Solidarity (PBP-S) had one seat, no change, the Social Democrats had one, Ted Tynan held on, while Lorna Bogue lost out.

Fianna Fáil had a great result, and party leader Micheál Martin seemed to spend more time in City Hall over the weekend than some of his candidates.

Tony Fitzgerald was the first councillor elected, topping the poll in North West, and he wasn’t shy about his ambition to seek a Dáil nomination next time out. With Ballincollig’s Colm Kelleher hoping to run alongside Pádraig O’Sullivan in Cork North Central, it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Although flying high nationally, Fine Gael dropped two councillors in Cork and although Shane O’Callaghan did very well in South Central, the party can’t be too happy with its performance.

The figures show that Sinn Féin has the same number of city councillors now that it did last week, but the figures don’t show the turmoil behind that “no change”.

Running three candidates in the North-West and South-West wards didn’t pay off, and while Sinn Féin still has two North-West councillors, Michelle Gould’s seat came at the expense of Mick Nugent, who for the second election in a row lost out.

In the South-West ward, first-timer Joe Lynch got in, but at the expense of sitting councillor Orla O’Leary.

GREENS HOLD TOUGH

Similarly, the Greens are, on the numbers, “no change”, but Colette Finn lost out in South-West, while things looked dicey for Dan Boyle and Oliver Moran till the very end. Still, the party made history with the election of Honore Kamegni, the first black person to sit in City Hall.

The Labour Party trebled its seats, with Laura Harmon and Peter Horgan joining sitting councillor John Maher.

Independent Ireland’s Ken O’Flynn was re-elected with over half a quota to spare, and he will hope to translate that to a Dáil seat.

Brian McCarthy of PBP-S had to wait until the 10th count, and for a long time it looked like the last seat in North West might go to library protester Ross Lahive.

Saoirse Mackin in North West wasn’t elected, but the transgender Social Democrats candidate said she enjoyed a very positive reception on the doors.

Balance sheets can’t capture the emotion behind wins and losses, and they can’t show the courage of those who stand for election.