Tally kids and Kingmakers - how Kildare South was won
Cathal Berry and Mark Wall at Punchestown on Sunday. Berry's transfers would prove crucial to Wall taking a seat
AFTER a slow start which took over 12 hours to get to the first count, returning officer for Kildare South Eoghan Ryan formally declared Martin Heydon (FG) elected 630 above quota (10,734) on the 12th count.
As his surplus was greater than the gap between the last two remaining candidates – Mark Wall (Lab), and Fiona O’Loughlin (FF) – a 13th count was called, which saw Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (SF) elected 514 shy of the quota, with Wall taking the final seat, seeing off a disconsolate O’Loughlin by 460 votes.
The two mild surprises were the political demises of incumbents Cathal Berry and Patricia Ryan – the former mainly due to losing a lot of his Portarlington heartland, and the latter due to her mysterious deselection from Sinn Fein.
Indeed, it was Berry who proved kingmaker after his elimination in count 10, with the distribution of his 4,767 giving the whip hand to Wall.
One of the very refreshing aspects of count ’24 was the amount of engaged young people, both as interested onlookers, and party tallymen.
Of note was Fionn Brophy (13) who, when he said he was from Castlemitchell, made it obvious the Wall was his man.
However, a colleague had one better, and told of the Stafford Twins – Pierce and Tilly (12) – who were tallying for Martin Heydon.
Both probably breathed a big sigh of relief, and avoided a heap of extra homework on Tuesday when their teacher Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh got elected!
