In a repeat performance of the 2020 general election, the Cavan-Monaghan constituency was the last to declare following a marathon 44-hour count.
And just like last time, the line-up remains the same in this five-seater with two Sinn Féin, two Fianna Fáil and one Fine Gael returned.
The only difference is the faces.
Sinn Féin’s former TD Pauline Tully was the most high-profile election casualty, losing her seat after the party’s gamble of fielding three candidates failed to pay off.
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Her running mate Matt Carthy topped the poll to retain his seat with more than 15,000 votes – though it took until the twelfth count to get him over the line.
In his acceptance speech, Carthy described it as a “bittersweet” moment following the “devastating” departure of Tully.
First-time Sinn Féin candidate, Monaghan theatre manager Cathy Bennett, got in the thirteenth count, and a singsong of Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile erupted among her supporters in Cavan Leisure Centre.
Fine Gael’s David Maxwell was the only candidate to exceed the 11,542 quota and the first to be elected shortly after 4am on Monday. He replaces the party’s veteran TD and Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys, who announced her surprise retirement in October.
Fine Fáil’s sitting TDs, Niamh Smyth and Brendan Smith, were the final two elected on the fourteenth count at 9.50pm on Monday, neither having reached the quota.
Smyth’s eight-year-old daughter, Juliet, was dressed in a red Christmas tutu and looked up at her mother standing at the winners podium as she described her next term in office the as the honour of her life.
