Divine intervention
Those waiting on the results for the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan were praying for divine intervention on Monday as counting continued to trudge along.
The discovery of a number of miraculous medals in count boxes on Saturday night did not appear to have helped matters. Featuring an invocation to Our Lady, the religious jewellery was found in in both Cavan and Monaghan boxes.
As of 5am on Monday morning, just one TD had been elected; Fine Gael’s David Maxwell took the first seat. There were scenes of jubilation in the Cavan Leisure Centre as Maxwell held on to the seat of the outgoing Minister Heather Humphreys.
Counting did not begin again until 1pm on Monday with Sinn Féin’s Pauline Tully losing her seat.
The first miraculous medal of the weekend seems to have been found in Meath East, in an Ashbourne box on Saturday morning.
A gem of a find
Among the other noteworthy objects found in boxes over the weekend was a wedding ring in Co Donegal.
Counting staff discovered the ring when they opened a ballot box at the Aura Leisure Centre on Saturday morning.
There was a note taped to the top of the box from the returning officer in Moville indicating that a man’s wedding ring had fallen into the ballot box when he was casting his vote on Friday.
The wedding ring had to remain in the box until it was officially opened by counting staff on Saturday due to strict election rules.
The note told staff to pass the ring on to Ali Farren, a local councillor for the 100% Redress Party, who promised to reunite the wedding band with the man.
Farren was involved in the campaign of the party’s candidate Charles Ward, who was elected as a TD for Donegal in the early hours of Monday morning.
Ward took the fourth seat, alongside Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Fianna Fáil’s Pat the Cope Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue.
Wedded bliss
Speaking of wedding rings, Maeve O’Connell, the wife of Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy, became an elected representative over the weekend.
A long-time Fine Gael activist, O’Connell took the second seat for the party in Dublin Rathdown. She met Brophy, who retained his seat in Dublin South-West, when he was standing to be the head of Young Fine Gael.
O’Connell was helping run the campaign of the person opposing her now-husband. She was first elected as a Dún Laoghaire Rathdown councillor in 2019 while Brophy has been a TD since 2016.
The Green Party’s Patrick Costello and Hazel Chu might have also been another husband and wife Dáil combo, but it was not to be.
Costello lost his seat in Dublin South Central while Chu failed to hold on to the party’s seat, formerly held by Eamon Ryan, in Dublin Bay South.
The pair were spotted at the Dublin West count centre on Sunday to support their party leader Roderic O’Gorman, the only Green left in the next Dáil.
The party’s outgoing TDs Noel Francis Duffy and Catherine Martin are also husband and wife.
Birthday election
Fianna Fáil’s Albert Dolan had a birthday to remember on Sunday. Dolan turned 26 and was elected as a TD for Galway East.
Dolan was voted in ahead of fellow Fianna Fáil member and outgoing Minister of State Anne Rabbitte in an impressive showing.
The youngest Cathaoirleach in Galway County Council history, Dolan was formerly the youngest person to be elected to the council, aged 19, in the 2019 local elections.
He grew up on a farm in Monivea and had worked as an accountant alongside his father in Loughrea. Dolan said age wasn’t an issue for him while out campaigning and believed it has been his “biggest strength”.
Other young guns in the next Dáil include Independent Barry Heneghan (26), the protege of former minister of State Finian McGrath.
Heneghan, who only became a local councillor in June, took the fourth seat in Dublin Bay North in the early hours of Monday morning. Labour’s Eoghan Kenny (24) has also taken a seat in Cork North-Central.
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