McGahon hopes ‘losing a final will win a final’
Fine Gael candidate in North Louth John McGahon called his election defeat early in the day, saying: ‘I think to win a final, you have to lose a final.’
He said that although he was ‘disappointed’ he was proud to have received a large number of first preference votes.
‘I am disappointed for the people in my campaign, who fought so hard to get me elected. They were wonderful, and I owe them such a debt of gratitude.’
But he added that he was heartened by the 4,442 first preference votes, ‘which I think was a very strong vote for my first time, and especially with the tide slightly out for the party as well.’
‘However in County Louth we did very well, we are the second largest party. Between myself and Fergus O’Dowd we got more votes than Fianna Fail.’
‘I think we had a very positive vote in County Louth, and I think that’s something to be proud of.’
But make no mistake about it, I’ve enjoyed every minute of this campaign. I’ll definitely be back come the next election.’
He added that he might even ‘ be out knocking doors again next week. That’s the way I’ve always been about politics in the last five years. I’m building again for the future.’
On the Sinn Fein ‘ tide’ that swept across Louth and the country, he said: ‘You have to hand it to them, they’vre had a great day, and no one can take that away from him. The fact that they’ve won seats in constituencies where they’ve previously never held one.. that kind of representation is impressive.’
‘ They have got a very clear vote, and the onus is on them to see what they can do with that, it’s up to them now to honour the mandate that they’ve been given.’
As he returns to his role on Louth County Council, he added: ‘What I am going to do this week is take stock of our campaign, see what we did well, and what we did wrong, to learn the lessons from the whole thing, it is a different animal from the local elections.’
He added that he was ‘very grateful to the Fine Gael party in Louth for their support of his campaign, saying: ‘Some really put their shoulder to the wheel for me, and I’m very grateful.’