Green Day doesn’t materialise
The small Green wave which accompanied the Sinn Fein tsunami which swept across the country as voters turned their backs on the established parties wasn’t enough to see Mark Dearey elected on his fourth attempt to gain a Dail seat.
The clearly disappointed owner of the Spirit Store thanked his supporters as he bowed out on the ninth count on Monday afternoon.
The former Senator and councillor had stepped out of politics at last year’s local elections but had been persuaded to contest this year’s General Election as the environment became an election issue.
Despite throwing his heart and soul into the campaign, which he started later than the majority of candidates, he just didn’t get enough votes to keep him in the hotly contested battle for the final three seats after Sinn Fein swept in to take two seats on the first count.
With transfers going anywhere and everywhere, it seemed that he might have been in the make-up of the 33rd Dail but it wasn’t to be.
He did, however, take consolation from the party’s good performance around the country and the fact that environmental issues are now clearly on the agenda.
‘ The Greens are having an amazing day and my very dear colleague Malcolm Noonan got elected in Kilkenny just as I was being eliminated in Louth,’ he said. ‘I am delighted for the party.’
As his supporters, party workers and other candidates gathered to commiserate, he said he ‘just want to thank everyone who came here to support me all day and during the last four weeks when I decided to run, and I
want to thank my wife Laura and family for their support.’
Despite polling an impressive 5,418 first preference votes, which was more than he got in his previous General Election outings in 2007, 2011 and 2016, he didn’t get enough transfers to take him over the finishing line.