Musical chairs, high-profile casualties and a fight to the end - Limerick City election

A NUMBER of unsuccessful candidates in the Limerick City constituency are “considering all their options” before deciding on any immediate or long-term political plans.

It was a weekend of mixed emotions at the Limerick count centre - familiar faces were re-elected, there was a high-profile political casualty and a dramatic battle for the fourth and final Limerick City seat.

Councillor Elisa O’Donovan told the Limerick Leader this Tuesday, two days after conceding defeat to council colleague Conor Sheehan, that she would be “writing a statement” and according to the Irish Times, the speech and language therapist is “looking into her options” regarding the ballot paper alphabetical error.

READ MORE: A loss and a win for Limerick candidates at General Election in Dublin

“I obviously feel gutted and should never have been put in the position where there was any uncertainty on the final vote because of the error made to my name on the ballot paper,” she said upon reflection.

Prior to the final seat scramble, Cllr O’Donovan told the Limerick Leader on Saturday that while there “definitely was an error made” and that “the returning officer rang [her] and apologised profusely”, she trusted the people of Limerick to vote accordingly.

“There was an error, I was lower on the ballot paper than I should have been. I do trust the people of Limerick, there is only one ballot paper, they knew who they were going in to vote for.

“My picture was there, my party was there, so I don’t think it will have any material difference,” she said on day one of the election count.

However, it remains to be seen if there will be a formal investigation into the ballot paper error.

Cllr O’Donovan was among three candidates whose names were placed further down the paper than they should have been in the alphabetical error.

With 17 candidates contesting for four seats, it was the survival of the fittest when it came to the all-important final seat, with Cllr Conor Sheehan ultimately securing victory.

Former Chamber CEO Dee Ryan of Fianna Fáil exited at count 14 at around 7:20pm on Sunday to leave Cllr Sheehan and Cllr O'Donovan in a head-to-head battle.

Castleconnell woman, Ms Ryan placed third in the battle for the final seat, falling short of Cllr O'Donovan by 309 votes.

All very reminiscent of the Mayoral election for Ryan, where Helen O’Donnell and John Moran finished ahead of her before Moran's ultimate victory.

As the dust settled and the future came into focus, Ms Ryan said she is disappointed with the result overall, as she feels there is a lack of representation among the newly-elected TDs in Limerick City.

“I am gutted that Limerick doesn’t have that reality represented directly in the Dáil,” she said.

“One of the reasons why I stood is because I don’t see me or any of the people I meet in my life; on school runs, on the sideline, in parent-teacher meetings or in the workplace; I don’t see us represented directly in the Dáil,” she explained.

“To be fair, I think it was only myself and Frankie Daly who were the only two candidates in Limerick City with school-going kids - so that again shows that it’s a minority of people who are able to put ourselves forward.

“I’m disappointed for that cohort.”

It is a double disappointment for Ms Ryan, as it is her second time this year contesting a political election. She is going back to the drawing board to see what the future holds for her, but says “I’ve no firm decisions made yet”.

A number of other election candidates’ saw their hopes unravel early.

On Saturday, Independent candidates Dean Lillis and Michelle Hayes were eliminated at the first count.

The second count saw hospital campaigner Melanie Cleary’s exclusion, before others such as Ruari Fahy (People Before Profit-Solidarity), Esther Ahearne (Independent Ireland) and Dean Quinn (The Irish People) were also eliminated.

The highest-profile casualty on day one was The Green Party's Brian Leddin - the only sitting TD in Limerick to lose his seat. He was excluded from the race in the seventh count.

The first act of Sunday in the Limerick City constituency was the redistribution of Senator Paul Gavan’s vote, whose hopes were ended in count eight, but whose distribution gave Sinn Fein colleague Deputy Maurice Quinlivan the boost he needed to secure seat three with 9,236 votes.

This was around 31 hours after long-standing Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea was elected to the first seat, as poll-topper.
Corbally independent councillor Frankie Daly was eliminated in count nine. A candidate for the directly elected Mayor in the summer, Cllr Daly only missed out by a whisker in the 2020 General Election to Brian Leddin.

Senator Maria Byrne was eliminated by the time count ten came around. She transferred her Fine Gael party colleague Deputy Kieran O’Donnell 1,973 votes, which confirmed his re-election.

Count 12 ended the hopes of Aontú councillor Sarah Beasley, who commented: “We might have another General Election. That’d be good for me.”