Ireland South voting sensation Brian Crowley all but made a bid for the presidency as he recorded a fifth poll-topping European election, with his team likening him to the much- loved US president, Franklin Roosevelt.

Counting will resume in Cork and Castlebar this morning as efforts to elect four MEP's in Ireland South and Midlands North West continues.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has conceded a major shift in Ireland’s political landscape after voters turned in their droves to anti-austerity candidates in European, local and by-elections.

Voters have been urged to think “long and hard” before electing three Sinn Féin candidates to the European Parliament given the party’s traditional Euroscepticism.