Limerick county bucks trend with two Fine Gael seats

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Limerick County unearthed one nugget for a beleaguered Fine Gael.

A well-executed vote-sharing strategy between the party’ s candidates, Patrick O’Donovan (outgoing) and Tom Neville yielded two of the three seats.

On count six, both were elected without reaching the quota. Neville was on 10,369 and O’Donovan on 10,291.

Hours earlier, Niall Collins of Fianna Fáil sailed home at top of the poll with 12,276 first preferences, 1,172 above the quota.

Niall Collins (FF) celebrates after being elected on Count 1 for #lkco #GE16 pic.twitter.com/QMGie2x5KG

— Newstalk Elections (@ElectionNT) February 27, 2016

Much of the speculation about Limerick County centred on young barrister and farmer Emmett O’Brien.

Having broken from Fianna Fáil he made a strong statement of intent at the local elections in 2014 when he headed the poll in the Adare/Rathkeale district.

Many predicted he would take one of the Fine Gael seats. His campaign was well tuned.

At the close of business at the count centre in the UL Arena, Mr O’Brien stood on 9,481, just over 800 votes off Fine Gael’s Patrick O’Donovan.

His campaign was most impressive and he lined up a big team of workers.

If there was one issue which may have knocked a hole in his challenge, it was the gasification plant planned for the old Gortadroma landfill site.

As one of the six local councillors for the area, he backed the project when it came for approval at a full meeting of Limerick City and County Council. However, so did Tom Neville, another one of the six councillors.

Mr Neville did not suffer as much, because Fianna Fáil viewed Mr O’Brien a bigger threat than the Fine Gael man.

Seeing a chink in Mr O’Brien’s armour, Fianna Fáil went to war and blitzed parishes stretching along the Shannon Estuary from Askeaton to Glin with posters and leaflets delivered to every house, highlighting the dangers of gasification plants and specifically Niall Collins’s total opposition to the project.

The level of public anger was illustrated by the huge numbers which turned out for anti-gasification meetings in the parish hall in Shanagolden.

Emmett O’Brien’s cause was also hit by ex-Fianna Fáil councillor Richard O’Donoghue who racked up 2,855 first preferences.

What it does show is that there are two Fianna Fáil quotas out there in Co Limerick and the scale of Niall Collins’s success will mean that Fianna Fáil will now have the second Fine Gael seat in its sights.

However, for the time being, his performance will have enhanced his standing in the Fianna Fáil hierarchy.

Fine Gael in Limerick County produced one of the most outstanding returns with the hostile conditions the party found itself in.

And Emmett O’Brien, given his appetite for the fray, will no doubt say to himself “beidh lá eile”.