Cork North West count completed; Emerges some voters wrote Sinn Féin across ballot

All three seats were filled in one fell swoop on the fifth and final count of the evening in Cork North West.

Early tallies taken at the count centre at the Mallow GAA Complex indicated that there would be no real shake-up in the constituency, with each of the sitting TDs expected to hold on to their seats. And so it transpired.

This includes Fine Gael Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, Fianna Fáil’s Aindrias Moynihan and Fianna Fáil’s Michael Moynihan.

Sinn Féin may regret not running a candidate in the Cork North West constituency as it is believed the party had a real chance to capture a share of the vote.

Early in the day, it began to emerge that a number of ballots had been spoilt as voters had written ‘Sinn Féin’ across their papers.

With Pat Buckey topping the poll in Cork East with a generous surplus of votes, talk on the other side of the count centre focused on why the party did not run a candidate in Cork North West.

It is something that will be reviewed, according to Conor McGuiness, Mr Buckley’s director of elections.

When asked why the party did not run for the constituency, Mr McGuiness said:

“I don’t know to be honest.”

Sinn Féin aimed to run candidates in every constituency, he said. “That didn’t happen in Cork North West this time but it's something for us to look at and to build on.

“We’ve run multiple candidates in some constituencies, in some we’ve just run one. It’s something that we do have to look at in the future when we have our review, which we have after every election good or bad.”

First-time candidate Becky Kealy said she believed part of her relative success was due to her party Aontú being the only ‘All Ireland’ party in the constituency, given the absence of a Sinn Féin candidate.

The Kanturk woman was eliminated on the third count but picked up 3,877 in first preference votes, capturing more than 8% of the vote.

“People were crying out for an alternative. I definitely think I picked up some of the Sinn Féin votes. People told me they wanted to vote for Sinn Féin but they voted for me instead because we are an All-Island party.”

Michael Creed, the outgoing Minister for Agriculture said his party had an ambition for John Paul O’Shea to have taken a second seat.

“It’s not going to happen so my own satisfaction is tempered by that disappointment.”

More celebrations in #CorkNorthWest because the once wasn’t enough #Ge2020 #iestaff via @Jess_JCasey pic.twitter.com/zP2yIokbNC

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 9, 2020

When asked where he thought it went wrong for some of his party colleagues who lost their seats, Mr Creed said: “Well look, I’m not going to analyze a complex electoral message on the hoof. I think it's time for reflection.

“Obviously, there isn’t much by way of electoral dividend for fiscal competence or for the kind of change that we [Fine Gael] have presided over. A changed economy, constitutional change, social change. Or indeed much electoral dividend for fiscal competence. Rather there was an electoral dividend for fiscal incontinence so let's see what that brings for the country.”