Post-election blues

Tangled up in post-election blues

Political De Facto
Liamy MacNally

A few weeks ago, John Prenty, the director of elections for John O’Mahony, stated that he had no doubt about Johnno’s election chances. He was going to be a TD. He was definite. Johnno was third home after his party leader, Enda Kenny and Michael Ring. It was a phenomenal result for Fine Gael in Mayo. It was also a phenomenal result for Fianna Fáil, regardless of the ‘Beverley battle.’ 

ELECTRIFY THE PARTY
When Enda Kenny took over as party leader he said that he would ‘electrify’ the party. Many of us thought otherwise. Five years on everyone has to admit that not only has he brought the party back from the brink but also catapulted it back on to centre stage. He has led from the front, and bounced confidence and purpose back into the step of party members. He has even put Jack Lynch’s great 1977 landslide in the shade by ‘recouping’ 20 seats for Fine Gael. Fine Gael has a lot to thank Enda Kenny for, just as he has been gracious in acknowledging the support he received from Mayo people who gave him more than 14,700 first preference votes. It was an extraordinary vote of confidence. Couple that with the votes secured by the other party candidates, Michael Ring’s 11,412 first preferences, John O’Mahony’s 6,869 and Michelle Mulherin’s 5,428. The party received almost 38,500 first preference votes, just under 55 per cent of the votes cast. 

THE VICTIMS
Every victory has its victims. Michelle Mulherin was Fine Gael’s. The Ballina councillor put in a sterling performance but had to partner defeat on the dance floor on Friday last. Other big losers were the two outgoing TDs, Jerry Cowley and John Carty. Many people would say that the gas issue probably had a major negative impact on Jerry Cowley’s campaign. Some people said he was seen more as ‘an agitator rather than a legislator’.
John Carty was and will always remain one of the great gentlemen of politics. There was talk that he was in trouble from the start. He held out to the bitter end. The irony is that the benefits of investment in many infrastructural projects (Knock Airport) and grants for clubs and organisations bear his signature. Unfortunately, he will not be able to enjoy the fruits of the time and effort he has spent in leading delegations and ensuring that ministers included these projects in their spending plans. Eaten bread is soon forgotten one pundit claimed at the count last Friday. John Carty is not a brash, loud vociferous politician. He is more of the silent type and perhaps that is what some people did not like. He hasn’t gone away, you know!
The other major losers were Cllrs Frank Chambers and Gerry Murray. Neither one of them performed as well as he would have liked. It was really over for both of them after the first count. While the tally sent out an early message that Gerry Murray was doing well it never translated into big vote numbers in the urban areas. Gerry Murray will live to fight another day. Sinn Féin will build on his work. The Mayo vote replicated the national mood and, of course, the Mayo Taoiseach factor had as much of an impact here as it did on John Carty and Jerry Cowley. It also affected Frank Chambers.

THE TRANSFERS
The transfer of votes has changed from a strict transfer among the party faithful to cross transferring for all candidates. Enda Kenny did not need transfers and Michael Ring only needed 486 of the 1,029 transferred from Enda. When the Green Party’s Peter Enright, Tommy Cooke from the PDs and Labour’s Harry Barrett were eliminated, Michelle Mulherrin received the highest number of transfers, 400 out of 1,711. Gerry Murray’s distribution benefited Jerry Cowley the most with 874, followed by John O’Mahony on 714, Beverley Flynn on 656, John Carty on 528, the Ballina pair of Michelle Mulherin and Dara Calleary receiving 265 and 261 respectively and Frank Chambers on 206. There were 341 non-transferable votes. 
Cllr Frank Chambers was next to be eliminated. His 4,705 had to be distributed, of which 360 had already been ‘transfers’ to him. While John Carty was the big winner with 1,306 transfers, Bev was next on 1,279. Whatever differences exist between Bev and Frank did not weave their impact down to the ballot box. Dara Calleary received 1,104 giving a ‘total Fianna Fáil’ transfer vote of 3,689, or 78 per cent of Frank Chambers’ vote! Other recipients were Jerry Cowley (558), John O’Mahony (138) and Michelle Mulherin (82). Beverley then secured the bulk of Jerry Cowley’s vote with 1,362. The other female candidate, Michelle Mulherin, was next on 881. John O’Mahony received 732, Dara Calleary 542 and John Carty 389 with 1,436 non-transferable votes. Michelle Mulherin was next to be eliminated. She had 7,644 votes at this stage, 570 behind John Carty. While her fellow townie, Dara Calleary from Fianna Fáil received 1,924, John O’Mahony was elected on her transfers of 4,149 bringing him above the quota of 11,898 to 13,736. Bev received 566 with John Carty getting 89. There were 916 non-transferable votes. This was the death knell for John Carty and Dara Calleary and Bev were deemed elected without having reached the quota. They had 11,269 and 11, 250 votes respectively. That was some performance from Bev, as an Independent. Of course, as an Independent supporting a Fianna Fáil-led Government, she would be in a much stronger position to be crowned the new Queen of Mayo. 
John O’Mahony was the Transfer King – securing 6,867 transfers, only two less than his first preferences. Bev received 4,471 and Dara Calleary 4,044.  
Perhaps it is time to talk to John Prenty again, once Fine Gael has sorted out its own internal battles about candidates playing inside the square and ignoring team management. I wonder what his answer will be if asked when Mayo will (definitely) win the Sam Maguire?