Marathon count sees Ming, Matt, and Maria elected

Independent MEP Luke Ming Flanagan, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh have taken the final three MEP seats in Midlands-North-West — while runner-up Peter Casey has vowed to run for the Dáil.

The result of the week-long European elections race was finally confirmed last night after four days of intense counting. In a final 13th count just before 9pm, Mr Flanagan, Fine Gael’s Ms Walsh, and Mr Carthy joined Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness who was elected on the first count on Monday with the highest vote in Ireland.

The final, 13th count read as follows:

While Mr Casey fought back into the race, finishing on 78,362 votes, he ultimately failed to receive enough transfers from Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith in the final count. Instead, Mr Smith’s votes were distributed between Mr Casey (8,439), Mr Flanagan (9,064), Mr Carthy (7,336) and Ms Walsh (11,035).

On being elected, Mr Flanagan shouted “sorry Peter” and sang “champione, champione”, Mr Carthy was draped in a tricolour, while Ms Walsh was engulfed by Fine Gael supporters. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar intended to travel to Castlebar for the election announcement, but due to work constraints took to Twitter to say he gave her a “quick FaceTime” video call to offer his congratulations.

In their winners’ speeches, Mr Flanagan said he wants to keep representing the rural people of Ireland and Ms Walsh said she was “proud” to be elected. Mr Carthy — whose leader Mary Lou McDonald said after arriving at the count centre he leadership is not under threat — cited Leonard Cohen, saying Sinn Féin’s difficulties this week are the “crack the light shines through”.

Mr Casey — who arrived one minute after count 12 put him ahead of Mr Smith, but left long before the final count when it became clear he would not win a seat — told RTÉ he will now run for a Dáil seat in Donegal.

Asked if he will accept defeat if he loses again, he said: “Ach, don’t be silly. Not at all. When you go into politics you realise you’ll win some, you’ll lose some. I think I have had a very good showing in both my campaigns.”