This article is from page 8 of the 2011-03-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
AS MANY as 4,200 Clare citizens from the east of the county were required to cast their votes not in the Clare constituency, but the hotly contested new constituency of Limerick City.
As many as 3,270 of those Clare people cast their votes in nine boxes in a school in Parteen and a Scouts Hall in Shannon Banks.
The Clare vote reflected that of the constituency as a whole with Fine Gael’s former leader Michael Noonan receiving almost 30 per cent or 967 of the votes cast on the Clare side of the ever-contentious boundary line. This was just a few percentage points shy of what the Fine Gael stalwart received in the constituency as a whole when he topped the poll for the very first time.
Despite such supporters in Clare as Cllr Cathal Crowe (FF), Willie O’Dea (FF) saw his vote drop to 16.89 per cent or 545 votes.
Despite being elected on the seventh count after failing to reach the quota Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan polled strongly in east Clare, coming in as the second most popular candidate with 21.44 per cent of that vote.
In the only Clare area with a Labour Clare county councillor in the form of Pascal Fitzgerald, the Clonlara native secured 705 votes.
The second Fine Gael candidate and TD Kieran O’Donnell was also the second TD elected following a healthy transfer from running partner Michael Noonan.
Deputy Noonan, had increased his first preference vote across the constituency by 77 per cent.
Fianna Fáil’s Deputy O’Dea’s first preference vote had fallen however by as much as 64 per cent.
Former mayor of Limerick City and former Fine Gael councillor Kevin Kiely, who has long since been an advocate for moving the Limerick City boundary into Clare, did not poll well in the Clare area he believed should belong to Limerick city.
The now Independent candidate received just 36 out of a possible 3,270 Clare votes or one per cent of the vote.