This article is from page 6 of the 2011-11-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE PEOPLE of Clare turned out in their droves to support Newmarketon-Fergus man Michael D Higgins on his way to becoming the ninth president of Ireland.
President Elect Higgins received a whopping 20,828 first-preference votes, or 44.3 per cent, making the Banner County one of his best performing counties. This left Higgins with a commanding lead after the first count at the Clare Inn, with Sean Gallagher in second with 14,779, followed by Martin McGuinness with 4,950, Gay Mitchell with 2,545, David Norris with 1,707, Dana with 1,313 and Mary Davis with 890.
The elimination of Mary Davis and Dana saw a continuation of the theme, with Higgins receiving 745 transfers compared to 560 picked by Gallagher.
Gay Mitchell did make up some ground on Martin McGuinness, with the pair collecting 265 and 202 transfers respectively, while David Norris received 151 extra votes.
As expected, the vast majority of David Norris’ transfers in Clare, almost 60 per cent, went to Higgins, who received 977 extra votes, compared to Gallagher who received 364, McGuinness who received 213 and Mitchell who collected 125 votes.
The elimination of McGuinness and Mitchell further supported the land- slide for Higgins, who received 5,169 on the available transfers compared to just 1,468 for Sean Gallagher. This left President Elect Michael D Higgins with a commanding 27,719 votes, compared to Gallagher who took 17,171 Clare votes.
Clare voters gave a resounding ‘yes’ to the proposal to amend the constitution to allow for judges’ pay to be reduced. Of the 45,945 valid votes in this poll, a massive 37,196 or 80.96 per cent voted yes.
The same could not be said for the Oireachtas Inquiries Referendum, where less than 800 votes separated the sides. A total of 23,422 in Clare voted against the proposed change, with 22,273 voting in favour of it.