EXTRAORDINARY RESULT AS SINN FINN DOUBLE UP
FEBRUARY’S General Election painted a new picture of the political landscape in Louth.
The dark green of Sinn Féin was more evident, there was a return for Labour red and the long-absent ‘neutral’ shades of the Independent, while the Fianna Fáil colour disappeared altogether!
Fine Gael blue remained but not as vibrant, and Drogheda boasted three sittings TDs.
Local Elections of the previous May proved no indicator, on most levels, of how the big one would turn out. Then, Sinn Féin lost three seats and Fianna Fáil gained two.
However, in the General Election, SF accounted for 42% of first preferences, or nearly 30,000 votes.
Imelda Munster topped the poll with 17,203 votes (24.3%), more than the 15,072 accumulated by Gerry Adams when he stood alone for Sinn Féin in 2011.
To put this performance into further perspective, Adams and Munster combined for 19,490 first preferences in 2016 or a 28.86% share.
First-timer Ruairí Ó Murchú retained the SF seat vacated by Adams with 12,491 (17.7%) as both he and Munster passed the 11,778 quota on the first count.
The Fine Gael first preference share dropped by 4.3%, and Fianna Fáil’s by an even bigger 4.8%.
Outgoing FF TD Declan Breathnach got 5,781 no. 1s compared to 9,099 last time. This ultimately cost him his seat as the party failed to return a Dáil deputy in the ‘ Wee County’ for the first time since its formation.
Louth GAA county board chairman and former Louth football team manager Peter Fitzpatrick won a seat for FG in 2011 and 2016 but ran on this occasion as an Independent.
He resigned from the party over the position taken by Fine Gael on the 2018 referendum on the repeal of the constitution ban on abortion given his opposition to abortion.
Fitzpatrick took the fifth and final seat (10,779 votes) after former colleague Fergus O’Dowd (11,282) and Labour’s Ged Nash (11,659) made it over the line, also on the 10th count.
Indeed, it proved a real scrap for the last three places as Breathnach (9,625) and the Greens’ Mark Dearey (8,497) missed out. Incidentally, apart from Sinn Féin the only other party to increase its first preference percentage was the Green Party.
Dearey’s transfers proved vital. Breathnach received just 854, despite leading the pack of five contenders vying for three seats after the eighth count and the transfers from eliminated FF colleague James Byrne.
O’Dowd was first elected in 2002, while the 2020 result saw Nash regain the seat he lost in 2016. Along with Munster, they combined to give Drogheda three TDS for the first time.