Ireland South 2019 recap

Poll topper Sean Kelly (FG), Billy Kelleher (FF), Mick Wallace (I4C), the Green Party's Grace O’Sullivan and Fine Gael’s Deirdre Clune were the 5 MEPs for Ireland South as the recount in Cork was dramatically halted in June 2019.

Grace and outgoing member Deirdre took the fourth and fifth seats respectively in the constituency without reaching the quota, following the elimination of outgoing SF MEP, Liadh Ni Riada, during a full recount that was predicted to last weeks with Liadh 327 votes behind the GP contender. At the end of the first recount Liadh and her Sinn Fein team conceded the margin would not change sufficiently to bridge the difference and conceded defeat.

The fifth seat - the so-called Brexit seat - was only to be taken up when and if the UK leaves the European Union and Deirdre Clune had to play the waiting game until Boris got Brexit done! Totally opposed to Brexit, the Corkwoman described her win as 'bittersweet'.

755,987 (53.4%) of the 1,417, 017 Ireland South electorate voted for the 23 candidates, 36,793 spoiled their votes. Valid poll was 719,194, quota 119,866 with Seán Kelly amassing a massive 118,444 first preferences. The other first count totals: Billy Kelleher (FF) 84,083; Mick Wallace (I4C) 81,741; Liadh Ni Riada (SF) 79,072; Grace O’Sullivan (GP) 75,946; Malcolm Byrne (FF) 69,166; Deirdre Clun (FG) 64,605; Andrew Doyle (FG) 38,738; Sheila Nunan (LAB) 22,075; Adrienne Wallace (SPBP) 14,802; Dolores Cahill (IND) 10,582; Diarmuid O’Flynn (IND) 9,823; Liam Minehan (IND) 9,423; Breda Gardner (IND) 9,306; Theresa Heaney (IND) 7,475; Allan J Brennan (IND) 4,665; Peter O’Loughlin (II) 3,682; Colleen Worthington (IND) 3,286; Paddy Fitzgerald (IND) 3,182; Walter Ryan - Purcell (IND) 2,864; Maurice J Sexton (IND) 2,416; Peter Madden (IND) 2,395 and Jan Van De Ven (DDI) 1,423.

Sean Kelly was re-elected on count 9. Billy Kelleher was next over the line, with + 38,767 off fellow FF partyman, Malcolm Byrne's 80,000+, with an accumulated 131,652 votes on the 17th count. Subsequent transfers - Kelleher's surplus and Ni Riada's elimination resulted in Wallace being elected on the 19th count with his votes rising to 112,441 and 139,442. O' Sullivan was on 114,387 and Clune on 110,050. After the distribution of the transferable Wallace surplus, the fourth seat was O'Sullivan's with a total of 119,801 and Clune on 112,127 following count 20.

Nationally the party share of the 13 seats was as follows: FG 5; FF 2 (though Barry Andrews had to wait for Brexit to take his seat, like Deirdre Clune); Independendents 4 Change 2; GP 2; SF 1 and IND 1.