Cork North West: All three seats filled with FF taking two and county councillor taking FG seat
Fine Gael's John Paul O'Shea show his delight on his election in Cork North West at the count centre in Mallow GAA. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
All three seats in the constituency were filled overnight with Fianna Fáil's Aindrias Moynihan and Michael Moynihan retaining their seats and county councillor John Paul O'Shea taking a seat for Fine Gael on the sixth count.
Mr O'Shea's running mate Michael Creed narrowly missed out despite polling 17.09 per cent of first preference votes.
There will be at least one more count in Cork North West before counting is adjourned until the morning.
This follows the announcement of the result of the fourth count, which saw the distribution of the votes of the Green Party’s Colette Finn and Ellen Barry of Independent Ireland following their elimination.
No one was elected as a result of this allocation.
The next step is the elimination of Becky Kealy and the redistribution of her votes.
The third count in Cork North West has not yielded an elected candidate
The next step is the elimination of Colette Finn and Ellen Barry and the redistribution of their votes.
No candidate has been elected in Cork North West following the announcement of the first count of the votes cast in the constituency moments ago with four in serious contention to land the three seats.
The result was announced by the returning officer shortly before 9pm. The total electorate was 67,255 and the total poll was 43,110 with 266 spoiled votes. That left the valid poll as 42,844 and the quota has been calculated as 10,712.
No candidate reached the quota on the first count and now the votes of candidates Walter Ryan Purcell and John O’Leary are to be distributed following their elimination.
Fine Gael candidate in Cork North West Michael Creed said he was proud of his campaign and the team that had canvassed with him but admitted was facing the likelihood that his bid to be elected to the 34th Dáil would come up short by around 250 votes.
Such is the exactitude of tallying and the depth of election expertise among his team, the veteran councillor expressed doubts that he would be able to make up the gap which would guarantee him one of the three seats in a constituency which has been a toss up between the two main parties since its establishment in 1981.
“The first count hasn’t been announced yet, I’m waiting for it but my friends who’re doing the tally for me are telling me I’m around 250 votes short – the candidates that are left are on the northern end of the constituency so I think that I will find it very, very difficult to pick up those 250/260 votes on my side,” he said, adding that he would be waiting on the declaration of the first count result.
“It’s been a long campaign – I’ve been campaigning now with over eight weeks but it’s been a pleasure and I’ve met some very decent people – I had a go, I gave it one good try and just came up a small bit short this time.”
He said that while it wasn’t over, he placed a lot of store in the tally carried out by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael jointly. “It was a very good tally – I am confident that they got it right. I will certainly wait until the first round result is and see.” Mr Creed was nominated to run for Fine Gael after his cousin, also Michael Creed, decided not to run again.
After what seems like an eternity, the final preparations are being completed to pave the way for the announcement of the first count result for Cork North West at the Mallow GAA complex.
The adjudication of the doubtful votes has taken place and, following the announcement of the Cork East count which is expected shortly, there should be only a short delay before the Cork North West first count result is declared.
The candidates are all gathering in, particularly those expecting to be in the hunt for the three seats. “It’s definitely going to be tight, only a couple of hundred votes between four or five candidates,” said Aindrias Moynihan, who has 18.85% of the first preferences according to the tally, ahead of his rivals if only marginally. “I’m very glad to be in the position I am but it’s going to be a long evening.” His running mate, Michael Moynihan’s vote share is being estimated at 17.67%.
Fine Gael’s Michael Creed was put at 16.9% by the tally which was completed before lunchtime said he would wait until after the first count result was announced before commenting, likewise with Sinn Féin’s Nicole Ryan, who has, if the tallies are to be believed, put in a strong performance with 12.79% of the first preferences.
The tally of the first preferences in Cork North West indicates that Fianna Fáil is retaining a slight edge over Fine Gael in the tussle between the two main Government parties to get the lion’s share of the three seats here.
With 100% of the boxes opened and tallied, Fianna Fáil’s overall vote appears to be down by 2.83% - nevertheless the party looks to have the advantage over Fine Gael based on the tally of first preferences which has just been completed moments ago.
Fine Gael’s vote share in 2024 is down by 0.12% on its share in 2020 and their vote appears to have been well managed with Michael Creed, the cousin of the outgoing TD and bearing the same name, having secured 16.90% and John Paul O’Shea on 17.56%.
Becky Kealy of Aontú has a lot of ground to make up, being a distance behind on 7.9%.
The Green Party vote is down 3.6% and that party’s candidate, Colette Finn, a former elected member of Cork City Council is on 2.4% while Joe Moore of People Before Profit, standing for the first time, is on 1.9%. Ellen Barry of Independent Ireland is on 2.15% while Walter Ryan Purcell, who had been initially on the party’s ticket, is on 0.97%. At the bottom of the poll in Cork North West is John O’Leary who is on 0.29%.
While it seems clear that the two main Government parties will share the seats, and the indications are that Fianna Fáil have the edge at the moment, the allocation of transfers will have a bearing and the edge may switch several times before the result is finalised later on Saturday night or early on Sunday.
The tally of the first preferences in Cork North West indicates that Fianna Fáil is retaining a slight edge over Fine Gael in the tussle between the two main Government parties to get the lion’s share of the three seats here.
With 100% of the boxes opened and tallied, Fianna Fáil’s Aindrias Moynihan appears to be heading for a poll-topping performance with 18.85% of the vote. Michael Moynihan’s vote share is being estimated at 17.67%.
Nevertheless the party looks to have the advantage over Fine Gael based on the tally of first preferences which has just been completed moments ago.
Fine Gael’s vote appears to have been well managed with Michael Creed, the cousin of the outgoing TD and bearing the same name, having secured 16.90% and John Paul O’Shea on 17.56%.
Sinn Féin’s first-time candidate in the constituency, Nicole Ryan, has put in a strong performance according to the tallies with 12.79% of the vote tallied so far and Becky Kealy of Aontú a distance behind on 7.9%.
The Green Party's Colette Finn, a former elected member of Cork City Council is on 2.4% while Joe Moore of People Before Profit, standing for the first time, is on 1.9%. Ellen Barry of Independent Ireland is on 2.15% while Walter Ryan Purcell, who had been initially on the party’s ticket, is on 0.97%. At the bottom of the poll in Cork North West is John O’Leary who is on 0.29%.
While it seems clear that the two main Government parties will share the seats, and the indications are that Fianna Fáil have the edge at the moment, the allocation of transfers will have a bearing and the edge may switch several times before the result is finalised later on Saturday night or early on Sunday.
The early indications from the ongoing tally of the Cork North West tally indicates that Fine Gael has a slight edge over Fianna Fáil in the tussle between the two main Government parties to get the lion’s share of the three seats here.
With almost two thirds of the boxes opened and tallied, Fianna Fáil’s Aindrias Moynihan appears to be heading for a poll-topping performance with 21% of the vote so far.
Michael Moynihan’s vote share is being estimated at 13.9%, while the Fine Gael vote appears to have been well managed with Michael Creed, the cousin of the outgoing TD and bearing the same name, having secured 18.5% and John Paul O’Shea on 17.16%.
Sinn Féin’s first-time candidate in the constituency, Nicole Ryan, has put in a strong performance according to the tallies with 13.06% of the vote tallied so far and Becky Kealy of Aontú a distance behind on 7.61%.
The Green Party’s candidate, Colette Finn, a former elected member of Cork City Council is on 2.66% while Joe Moore of People Before Profit, standing for the first time, is on 2%.
Ellen Barry of Independent Ireland is on 2.18% while Walter Ryan Purcell, who had been initially on the party’s ticket, is on 1.05%. At the bottom of the poll in Cork North West is John O’Leary who is on 0.35%.
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