After 13 counts lasting 17½ hours, the political landscape in the Limerick County constituency remained unchanged from when voters last went to the polls in 2020.
The 2024 result concluded shorty after 2am on Sunday morning, with the constituency’s three outgoing TDs regaining their Dáil seats.
Fine Gael’s Patrick O’Donovan, who took the second seat in 2020, topped the poll this time with 178 over the 11,385 quota.
O’Donovan became the first Fine Gael TD in the constituency to be elected on the first count. He said 2024 had “not been a great year for us” – he collapsed in the Dáil last June and spent several weeks in hospital and, also this year, “we lost our mam”.
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Independent Ireland candidate Richard O’Donoghue took the second seat on the ninth count. After waiting all day and night and into the following morning, Niall Collins of Fianna Fáil admitted to being “emotional” after taking the third and final seat to a chorus of “Olé olé olé olé” from his supporters.
“It is an emotional rollercoaster, politics; I’m delighted, it’s a big relief, it’s been a long day,” said Mr Collins.
“I’ve finished first on three occasions and third on two occasions, and that’s the way it goes, you’re up and down, but I was really delighted this time around because my vote increased about a thousand votes on what I got on the last election.”
