hSjinjhnhFéin put dent hinjhHjealy-Rae vote

POLL-TOPPER Michael Healy-Rae and his brother, Danny, may have taken an eye watering 33 per cent of Kerry’s total vote, but Killarney’s tallies show even they weren’t immune to Sinn Féin’s dramatic surge.

The Healy-Rae’s famous vote-sharing strategy saw Killarney designated as Danny’s territory, and the town delivered for the Kilgarvan deputy, who walked away with 1,215 votes.

Michael Healy-Rae picked up a further 988 votes in the town, bringing the brothers’ combined Killarney take to 2,010 votes.

Their vote was huge – and represented by far the largest share from the town – but it still represented a drop of 810 on their 2016 vote in the town, when they picked up a combined 2,820.

The tallies strongly suggest where that vote went. Historically Sinn Féin has had a limited presence in Killarney, and in 2016 Martin Ferris only managed 313 votes there.

This time out Pa Daly – who ran a small-but-consistent canvass in the town throughout the campaign – more than doubled that, coming away with 790 votes.

That’s just shy of the loss experienced by the Healy-Raes and doubtless something that the Kilgarvan dynasty will be looking at closely as they examine their results.

Meanwhile Killarney proved a poor hunting ground for John Brassil who, in spite of several major canvasses in the town, only improved his vote by six – from 289 to 295 – between 2016 to 2020.

Fears that the VAT increase would hurt Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin in the tourism Mecca were also unfounded. He actually increased his vote by 123 to leave Killarney with 780 first preferences.