Try, try, and try again the motto for TD Ivana Bacik
Labour candidate Senator Ivana Bacik celebrating her election as TD in the Dublin Bay South byelection. Picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
As the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.
Ivana Bacik’s victory in Dublin Bay South, in political terms, is a walking testament to that old adage.
Having tried in Dublin Central, she failed.
Having tried as Eamon Gilmore’s running mate in Dún Laoghaire at the height of his popularity in 2011, she still failed.
But despite her party languishing on 3% nationally, Ms Bacik, a renowned legal scholar, lecturer, and senator has finally reached the promised land of Dáil Éireann.
She put in quite simply a stunning performance, topping the poll in the Dublin Bay South by-election.
Her party leader Alan Kelly said he was "immensely proud" of both Ms Bacik and his party in general after a "fantastic, positive campaign".
He added that the vote had been a "signal to Government ''.
What succour, Labour can actually take from this result is unclear, but having been on the run politically since 2012, there was a palpable sense of relief from the party to be on the right side of victory for once.
While Labour rejoices, the two main Government parties have been dealt a hammer blow by voters in the Dublin Bay South by-election.
Despite both insisting the contrary, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will now come under severe pressure from within their own parties to explain the poor performances of their candidates in Thursday's poll.
It had been expected that Fine Gael's James Geoghegan would top the poll with the party hoping that he would retain the party seat following the departure of Eoghan Murphy.
However, by mid-morning as the tallies began to come in, it was clear that the Labour party candidate had secured more first preference votes than had been anticipated.
Mr Geoghegan received 7,052 first preference votes behind Ms Bacik who received 8,131 votes.
This put Ms Bacik 4% ahead after the first count.
The election proved disastrous for Fianna Fáil, whose candidate Deirdre Conroy received just 1,247 first preference votes or 4.6% of the ballots.
This was behind the Green Party candidate Claire Byrne, who secured 2,157 votes in the first count.
The Sinn Féin candidate, Lynn Boylan, also put in a stronger than anticipated performance mopping up significant support in inner city and working class areas.
She was leading the early tallies after receiving a significant number of votes in areas such as Irishtown and Ringsend, however, she was leap-frogged as more boxes were opened.
In the end, Ms Boylan received 4,245 first preference votes.
Arriving into the count centre, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Government parties had been “found out”.
She said: "It is now clear that we have a Government living on borrowed time, is very clear that the Government's support in the constituency has collapsed and they have been found out, and nowhere more so than in the whole area of housing policy.
“What’s happening, not just in Dublin Bay South and parts of that constituency, but right across our city and right across the state is an absolute scandal, people, families, communities being comprehensively failed,” said Ms McDonald.
Fianna Fáil's director of elections Jim O'Callaghan, said the party's performance was "disappointing" but said that now is not necessarily the time to change the party's leader.
However, Mr O'Callaghan, who is the sitting Fianna Fáil TD for the constituency, said that the party would "have to think about" whether Mícheál Martin should lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election.
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