After three days, MEPs make it over the line in South

After a juggernaut of a count that lasted three days, Fine Gael’s Seán Kelly and Deirdre Clune joined Brian Crowley and Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada as Ireland South MEPs.

Mr Kelly and Ms Clune were not elected until the 12th count, when party colleague Simon Harris was forced to accept defeat.

Mr Kelly did well in the 10th and 11th count, with the transfer of 7,243 votes from Diarmuid O’Flynn suggesting a GAA vote, while he also won 8,255 from Kieran Hartley’s vote distribution in the 11th.

The second Fine Gael seat in Ireland South was still in the balance. Nearly 14,000 transfers from Labour candidate Phil Prendergast pushed the three Fine Gael candidates onwards at the expense of Fianna Fáil’s Mr Hartley and Ballyhea Says No campaigner Mr O’Flynn.

However, by the time Ms Prendergast’s votes were distributed, the second Fine Gael seat was a certainty.

There was a strong transfer rate from Ms Prendergast to the Fine Gael candidates and in particular a potential woman vote to Ms Clune, who picked up 6,578 votes from the Labour candidate’s 42,213 votes.

The heavy transfer to her coalition partners spelt the end of Mr O’Flynn’s battle to represent Ireland in Brussels. He was eliminated in the 10th count.

Up to this point, he had been the most transfer friendly of all the candidates. But his ambitions ultimately suffered from the early heavy transfer rate from Fianna Fáil poll-topper Brain Crowley to anti-pylon campaigner Mr Hartley.

Grace O’Sullivan, a first-time candidate for the Green Party, was eliminated in the eighth count, with the three Fine Gael candidates and Mr O’Flynn benefiting from her transfers.

Neither of the Fine Gael MEPs exceeded the quota.

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