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
HISTORY was made in the Galway East yesterday – but it was a long time in coming. After a marathon 28 hours of counting, Labour’s Colm Keaveney did just enough to take the final of four seats – the party’s first ever inroad in the long history of the constituency.
Keaveney will now join Micheal Kitt of Fianna Fáil and Paul Connaughton and Ciaran Cannon of Fine Gael in the Dáil. Though widely predicted to be in contention for a seat, Keaveney’s election was one of the big surprises of the count after he polled a disappointing 4,200 first preferences.
The drama of Keaveney’s eventual election began, in truth, with the performance of his running mate Lorraine Higgins. Higgins, who covered the southern half of the constituency, came in with in a disappointing tenth place after the first count with 3,577.
But the transfers were all going red and Higgins survived count after count, staying just ahead of the chop, until the fifth count when the flood of preferences could no longer save her.
By this time she had increased her share of the vote to just under 5,000 and, with Keaveney next in line to be eliminated, a massive transfer was needed to keep the Tuam man alive and kicking.
Against all the odds the flow the votes materialised with Higgins transferring just under 4,000 votes to her party colleague – lifting him above Fine Gael’s Tom McHugh and Jimmy McClearn and the highly fancied Independent Tim Broderick and Sean Canny.
So dramatic was the manner of the Keaveney comeback that few could have begrudged the recount called by the Fine Gael’s Tom McHugh. But there was no changing the result with Keaveney making history to take Labour’s first ever seat in Galway East.
No doubt there will be many disappointed Fine Gaelers in the constituency today, with the party’s hopes of winning a third seat faltering at the final hurdle. There was much success for the party on the day however as Paul Connaughton held onto the seat vacated by his father and former PD leader Ciaran Cannon taking a second seat for the party.
There had been some contention surrounding Cannon’s selection ahead of the election, with some local party members upset that he was added to the ticket by the Fine Gael hierarchy in Dublin.
Fianna Fail’s Michael Kitt was the only sitting TD returned by the electorate, taking the seat on the eight count.