THE pendulum swung in Fianna Fáil’s favour at the weekend when Fiona O’Loughlin and Seán Ó Fearghaíl took two of the three seats in Kildare South.
Fiona O’Loughlin TD is raised shoulder high after her election
Photo: Martin Connelly
It was a particularly momentous occasion for Fiona O’Loughlin as she made history by becoming the first female TD ever to be elected in the constituency.
As predicted Fine Gael’s Martin Heydon topped the voting poll and was the first across the finishing line after receiving an impressive 7,851 first preference votes. Boosted by a huge transfer following the elimination of party colleague Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy, he easily took the first of the three seats.
Heydon, who also topped the poll in 2011, promised to “hit the ground running” as he now faces in to his second five year term in Dáil Éireann.
More than 37,000 people, 63% of the 59,162 electorate, turned out to vote in Kildare South on Friday and in the end it took six counts to elect the three new TDs.
There were commiserations throughout for Labour’s Mark Wall who failed to hold on to his father Jack’s seat. Party veteran Jack Wall didn’t contest the election as he had decided to retire following 23 years in politics. This, along with the loss of a seat for long standing colleague Emmet Stagg in Kildare North, made it a sad day for the Labour Party camp.
Cllr Mark Wall was gracious in defeat and promised to continue to work for the people of Athy and those that he had met while canvassing that are not in his municipal district area.
“That’s the will of the people and you always have to bow to the will of the people,” he said.
There was disappointment in the Sinn Féin camp also as they had strongly believed that candidate Patricia Ryan would take a seat.
She did well with 4,267 first preference votes. She received the majority of transfers from the Green party’s Suzanne McEneaney and Renua Ireland’s Mary Kennedy but failed to gather any more momentum and was knocked out of the race on the fifth count.
Kildare Fianna Fáil supporters and campaigners had plenty to celebrate as the weekend ended with a massive change in the county’s political landscape. The party took four seats in total, two in both constituencies, with the election of James Lawless and Frank O’Rourke in Kildare North.
Fianna Fáil traditionally has had a strong hold in the county but following a national crash in 2011 no one predicted such an outcome.
“If anybody said six or eight weeks ago that there would be two Fianna Fáil TDs in Kildare South and two in Kildare North they would have sent for the men and women in the white coats,” said Seán Ó Fearghaíl.
