Two Tralee TDs as Daly and Foley take the capital

DALY OUTPOLLS FOLEY BY TWO TO ONE IN TRALEE BUT NORMA MAKES THE CUT

FOR the first time since 2002, Tralee will be represented by two TDs in the Dáil. As had been widely predicted in the days before the election Sinn Féin’s Pa Daly and Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley have both taken seats.

Deputy Daly rode the Sinn Féin surge to secure a massive 15,733 first preference votes, more than enough to see him easily elected at the first count on Sunday night.

Daly’s election provoked wild celebrations in the count centre with a huge number of Sinn Féin supporters lining out to cheer, and sing, him on.

Daly himself was in full voice singing a few rebel songs arm in arm with outgoing TD Martin Ferris, whose daughter, Toiréasa, Daly had replaced on the Sinn Féin ticket after her shock decision to quit the Dáil race and later to quit politics altogether.

Post-count the celebrations moved back to Tralee with the Sinn Féin faithful keeping the party going well into the small hours.

“I am delighted... We are on the crest of a wave,” he said following his election. “We have picked up the left-wing vote in Kerry,” he added.

Daly’s vote also proved useful to Norma Foley with a significant tranche of his transfers going to his fellow Tralee native.

Norma Foley’s win took longer, though having previously run unsuccessfully in 2007 she probably won’t have minded waiting a little longer to get over the line and succeed her late father Denis as a TD.

Foley’s win will have been a little bittersweet for Fianna Fáil as she knocked sitting TD John Brassil out of the Dáil. The party’s decision to run two candidates based so close to each other proved to be a costly mistake.

Foley performed well securing 6,856 first preferences and a steady stream of transfers that kept her well in front of John Brassil from the start and right through the successive counts.

Though Foley will be pleased with her performance in Tralee the party will be concerned at how many votes it lost to Sinn Féin in the county capital.

A look at the Tallies shows that in Tralee town Pa Daly out-polled Foley by a two to one margin.

Daly brought in close to 3,500 votes in the Tralee urban area compared to the roughly 1,700 votes secured by Foley.

Foley said she was delighted to be elected but regretted Fianna Fáil had failed in their bid for two seats.

“I’m hugely honoured to have been elected but it was always our objective, from a Fianna Fáil point of view, to attain two seats if that were possible. Unfortunately that didn’t come to pass and I regret that,” she said.

“I’m very pleased with how it has gone personally but there is a bittersweet tinge to it.”

Photo Domnick Walsh Cameraman Reggie McCrohan films as Pa Daly and outgoing Kerry Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris examines the tallies at the count centre in Killarney.

Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin LEFT: Deputy Brendan Griffin celebrating his election victory with his wife, Roisin; sons, Micheal and Breandán; family and supporters at the Kerry Constituency General Election Count in Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre on Monday.

Photo by Domnick Walsh Election candidate Cllr Norma Foley Fianna Fail and her husband, Denis Maguire, pictured at their polling station in Blennerville National School, Tralee.