My favourite story of the year from Limerick is...

GETTING to cover three elections over the course of a six-month work placement was beyond anything I could've hoped for - and the experience certainly lived up to the expectation!

My first two elections - the Local and the Mayoral - kicked off on my third day working at the Leader, so I spent much of that time generally trying to make myself useful without looking like I was running around like a headless chicken.

For November's General Election, I had almost half a year's experience under my belt and was mad excited to get to cover the elections in Limerick County alongside seasoned reporter and work bestie Donal O'Regan.

I was responsible for covering the election of Independent Ireland co-founder, Deputy Richard O'Donoghue. While it was one of the busier Saturdays of my life, it was even busier for Mr O'Donoghue.

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As well as being re-elected to Dáil Éireann, he was invited to two weddings on the day of the count.
After waltzing away with 10,540 first preferences on Saturday evening, he then danced the night away at the wedding of good friends Adrian Farragher and Fiona Power.

He attended the service of Adrian and Fiona’s wedding in Granagh Church on Saturday morning, and promised to “call in for a pint later on our way home”, having given the bride his word that he would be there for the last dance.

When asked in his post-election interview if getting re-elected was better than going to the weddings, he wittily responded: “the wedding is not over, we're just heading there now!”

Mr O'Donoghue ended up in a sing-song before leaving at 4am for a well-deserved sleep!