Ward a shock for Fine Gael
Dublin Mid West stomping ground lost for first time in 8yrs Humiliating defeat as party fails to win in any constituency
SINN Fein has shocked Fine Gael and taken the Dail seat of former Tanaiste and party stalwart Frances Fitzgerald.
Councillor Mark Ward was the first new TD elected in the four by-elections held this weekend.
The humiliating defeat for Fine Gael came in Ms Fitzgerald’s old stomping ground of Dublin Mid West where she had held a Fine Gael seat there since 2011.
The by-election was held to select a new TD to replace Ms Fitzgerald, who has gone to Europe after being elected an MEP.
The party had selected young councillor Emer Higgins as Ms
Fitzgerald’s heir apparent. The other three by-elections were also to pick new TDS to replace three more who were elected MEPS at the European elections in the summer.
The seats being refilled were in Cork North Central, where Billy Kelleher sat, Dublin Fingal, which was Clare Daly’s old constituency, and Wexford which had Mick Wallace as a TD.
Green Party activists were ecstatic again last night as the party celebrated its first Irish by-election victory with Joe O’brien elected.
It follows on from an uncontested Seanad by-election win that saw Pippa Hackett elected a Senator last month and the phenomenal victories in the local and european elections in May. And now Mr O’brien will be welcomed into Leinster House as a new TD on Tuesday by Green leader Eamon Ryan and deputy leader Catherine Martin as the party’s third TD in this Dail.
From early afternoon it was clear the councillor was on track to scoop the seat in Dublin.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael was trying to put a brave face on its failure to win a single seat.
This was the extremely modest and unambitious target – just one seat out of four – of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Despite its initial triumph, it was not a perfect day for Sinn Fein either as the party’s vote fell in some key areas, such as Dublin Fingal, the constituency of one of the party’s best performers, Louise O’reilly, and Wexford, where the vote dropped considerably. Fianna Fail, on the other hand, were smug last night having held on to the seat vacated by Billy Kelleher in Cork with Padraig O’sullivan, and taking the seat of Mick Wallace in
Wexford with Malcolm Byrne packing his case for Dublin last night.
Finance Minister and Fine Gael’s overall elections masterplanner, Paschal Donohoe, was rolled out to face the music on RTE’S Six One after the party’s poor showing yesterday.
He was pressed on whether the party would still stand behind failed by-election candidate Verona Murphy, especially considering her comments earlier this month that many considered racist.
He indicated they may not and her candidacy is up for review.
He added: “Every candidate is always of the view they should be a candidate in the upcoming General Election.
“But all candidacies are subject to review, including my own, and that includes Verona.
“Verona’s status is no different to any other.”
In Cork North Central, Thomas Gould of Sinn Fein won 19% of the electorate in Cork, which the party was pleased with and last night he was optimistic of a good day at the general election next year. He said: “We did great in the league, now we’re looking forward to the Championship.” But the day belonged to Mr Ward. He told RTE’S Six One News: “We got the message on the doors, we knocked around all the doors in Dublin Mi d West and we were hearing what people were saying, that the people are sick to the back teeth of austerity politics.
“We learned from the last couple of elections we had a few bad days at the office, but we learned from them.
“I took over from Eoin O Broin [as a councillor] in 2016, they were big shoes to fill, and I’ll be so honoured to walk into Leinster House with him on Tuesday.”
Turnout in all four by-elections was poor, with no constituency seeing any more than 30% of the electorate turning out.
We knocked around all the doors and we were hearing what people were saying
MARK WARD SINN FEIN YESTERDAY