McFadden secures seat in bitter-sweet victory

The buzz, the excitement: it just wasn’t there at the count centre in Keenagh in Co Longford on Saturday where counting of votes in the Longford-Westmeath by-election was taking place.

Partly, perhaps, because by the time just 40% of the boxes had been tallied, it was already clear that Gabrielle McFadden of Fine Gael had got the nod from the voters of Longford and Westmeath, and was going to claim the seat left vacant through the death of her sister, the late Nicky McFadden.

However, while the tallies may have been over, there was a long wait ahead for the first count, with at least two hours having been spent on the adjudication of doubtful votes.

And in the interim, there was little to do: visits by candidates were sporadic; there weren’t even many party handlers around watching, waiting, offering gossip, speculation, rumours and updates.

Ironically, however, McFadden did not win her own home town.

Neither too did the second favourite candidate — Fianna Fáil’s Aengus O’Rourke, son of living legend, Mary, and cousin of the late finance minister, Brian Lenihan.

That honour actually went to Independent Kevin “Boxer” Moran, who, on the tallies, took 32% of the Athlone vote; five points ahead of McFadden, and some 14 points ahead of O’Rourke, with Sinn Féin’s Paul Hogan polling 16%.

It took seven counts, and in the end, the only candidates still standing were McFadden and O’Rourke, and McFadden was declared elected, 4,444 votes below the quota.

Her final vote came in at 20,058, comfortably ahead of Aengus O’Rourke, whose final vote came to 14,581.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny turned up at the count centre earlier in the evening, when the result was evident, but the count still not complete.

He said that for Gabrielle, the day was one “tinged with nostalgia“, and due to the death of her sister, he knew this was not an easy time for her.

“But I do wish her the very best of luck in the future and I know that she will continue to serve the people of Longford and Westmeath in the way that she knows that she can, and the way that her sister did,” he said.

In her acceptance speech, Ms McFadden too referred to the mixed emotion of the day: “I wish tonight I was standing in the count centre in Athlone, and that I was topping the poll for the local election — and I had Nicky by my side. But I don’t,” she said.

Surprise performers on the day were two Independents. Brian Fagan, who exited on the third count with 4,985 votes, polled ahead of Labour’s Denis Leonard, who obtained 3,290 first preferences, compared with Fagan’s 4,195, and even more impressively, the Longford-based business consultant, James Morgan, who ran as an Independent, who polled 5,959 first preferences, and remained standing until the fourth count, when he was eliminated with a total of 6,615.

Independent Kevin “Boxer” Moran also did well, finishing up on the fifth count with 7,797.

Sinn Féin’s Paul Hogan performed impressively, echoing the performance of Sinn Féin generally in the elections.

He had a first preference vote of 7,548, and was only eliminated on the penultimate count, with a final showing of 11,254.

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