Little capital success for party of yesterday

FIANNA Fáil has been all but wiped out in Dublin, reduced to just one TD in the city as a swathe of ministers were toppled.

Brian Lenihan was the only party standard bearer to cling on in the capital, as Labour surged passed Fine Gael to become the dominant political force in Dublin.

Ministers Mary Hanafin and Barry Andrews paid the price for going head-to-head against each other in the bitterly contested Dún Laoghaire seat as both were kicked out of the Dáil.

In total, Fianna Fáil lost a dozen seats across Dublin, with Mr Lenihan’s brother Conor joining the ranks of members of the outgoing government to feel the wrath of voters.

The situation is even worse for Fianna Fáil in Dublin now than it was for Fine Gael during its wipeout in 2002 when the party retained three seats in Dublin.

Sean Haughey was also turfed out of his Dublin North Central seat, ending one of Ireland’s most high profile political dynasties — and marking a sharp turn to the left in the capital.

Socialist Joe Higgins took back the seat he lost in 2007 — and will be joined in the Dáil by three other members of his United Left Alliance, including activist Richard Boyd Barrett.

Cabinet minister Pat Carey lost out in Dublin North West as the constituency returned two Labour and one Sinn Féin TD.

Sinn Féin also did well in Bertie Ahern’s old heartland of Dublin Central — now without a Fianna Fáil deputy at all — where former MEP Mary Lou McDonald finally landed a seat on the third attempt.

Independent senator and business journalist Shane Ross easily topped the poll in the five-seater Dublin South which was briefly represented in the last Dáil by RTÉ broadcaster and political maverick George Lee.

Green leader John Gormley went down in Dublin South East along with his four party colleagues across the city.

Green Ciarán Cuffe was the third minister to be dumped from the Dáil in Dun Laoghaire, and former party chief Trevor Sargent suffered a similar fate in Dublin North.

That constituency saw both its Fianna Fáil TDs, Michael Kennedy and Darragh O’Brien, lose out as Socialist Claire Daly secured a Dáil berth.

With Dublin accounting for 47 seats — almost a third of the Dáil total — the almost complete meltdown in the city is a particular concern for Micheál Martin as he tries to rebuild a shattered Fianna Fáil.

The task is made even harder as the party’s local government base has been heavily eroded at councillor level over the past five years.

After topping the Dublin West poll in 2007, outgoing Finance Minister Mr Lenihan scraped in via fourth place behind Mr Higgins after Labour’s Joan Burton established a strong lead in first preference votes and became the first TD elected to the 31st Dáil.

Mr Martin made a basic tactical error in Dún Laoghaire by not insisting either deputy Fianna Fáil leader Ms Hanafin, or outgoing children’s minister Mr Andrews move to a neighbouring seat to ensure the diminished party vote was managed properly and would have likely delivered a rare capital success.

Sinn Féin’s Sean Crowe took back the Dublin South West seat he lost in 2007 and the party’s Dessie Ellis made a gain in Dublin North West.

Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, tipped as a rising star in the party, pushed Mr Haughey out of the running in Dublin North Central where Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton topped the poll as the party made net gains across the city, but was strongly out performed by Eamon Gilmore’s political machine on the ground.