Victory sealed with 22,000 transfers

“A ROAR of opposition by the ordinary people of Dublin” helped Joe Higgins fight off Fianna Fáil for a seat in the European Parliament, according to the country’s first Socialist Party MEP.

After a marathon count lasting more than 19 hours in the RDS, an announcement at 5.15am on Monday declared Mr Higgins as the winner of the third Dublin seat with the Fianna Fáil MEP of five years, Eoin Ryan, pipped at the post.

Mr Higgins was elected on the seventh count after picking up a massive 22,000 transfers from outgoing MEP, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, to beat Mr Ryan who got just 5,426 transfers on that count.