EDITORIAL: Election results mark the end of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dominance in Mayo

THEY may be about to reenter a coalition Government nationally, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were given a stark reminder over the weekend that the political landscape in Mayo is undergoing serious change.
Sinn Féin confirmed that they now have a solid support base right across the county, with Rose Conway-Walsh making history by becoming the first woman ever to top the poll in Mayo.
The sitting TD always knew her phenomenal performance from 2020 was unmatchable, but with no Michael Ring in the field this time round, her first preference tally of 10,117 was more than enough to see off the challenge of Alan Dillon of Fine Gael.
While Conway-Walsh’s performance was in general no great surprise, it was the performance of Aontú candidate Paul Lawless that most suggested the Mayo electorate is at a crossroads.

Biggest shock
It’s no exaggeration to say that Lawless winning a seat was the biggest shock in the general election nationally. Early bookmaker markets put his chances at odds of 200-1, but by the time boxes were opened on Saturday morning, Lawless’s odds had tumbled to 7-2.
He was still a rank outsider when the first-preference votes were revealed at 7pm on Saturday evening, when he had a total of 4,482 votes. But it quickly emerged he was the most transfer-friendly candidate in the field, and when he received a whopping 1,420 votes after the elimination of Independent candidate Stephen Kerr, he put himself firmly in the race for a seat.
Kerr and Lawless were both very vocal in their criticism of the Government’s immigration policies in the run-up to the election, and their combined first preference total of 7,771 suggests their views resonated with many members of the public.
Lawless also received over 1,000 transfers from Sinn Féin Gerry Murray. After that, he moved into favourite to take the final seat, where he held off the strong challenge of Independent candidate Patsy O’Brien.
Lawless has rattled a lot of cages in his short five-month stint as a Mayo County Councillor, and there is no doubt he will continue his crusade to hold the Government parties to account when he takes his seat in Dáil Éireann.
There was no great surprise in the fact that Mayo’s three sitting TDs were returned to Leinster House. The aforementioned Conway Walsh, alongside Fine Gael’s Alan Dillon and Fianna Fáil Dara Calleary, had enjoyed high profiles in their respective parties over the last five years, and when the formation of the next cabinet is decided in the coming weeks, both Dillon and Calleary will be angling for a front-bench position.

Huge achievement
The election of Lawless and the poll topping performance of Conway-Walsh may have hogged a lot of the Mayo limelight, but the performance of first-time candidate Keira Keogh for Fine Gael should not be underestimated.
She ended up with a staggering total of 12,475 votes, and while a lot of people gave her a fighting chance of a seat with Michael Ring in her corner, very few saw her taking a vote of that size.
Keogh was brave enough, after a failed local election campaign, to take on the role of Ring’s heir apparent and put her name before the party’s convention when very few others would.
However, having secured the party nomination, she was cruelly dealt what was perceived as a hammer blow when those in the know in Fine Gael’s HQ landed not one, but two more candidates on to the party’s Mayo election ticket.
Keogh was a clear outsider with the bookmakers when they were deciding who was the most likely to take a second seat for Fine Gael, but in the end Martina Jennings’s short campaign never took off and Mark Duffy paid the price for not having a geographical transfer base to pull from.

Hometown support
Keogh undoubtedly has big boots to fill, but the way in which her hometown of Westport came out to support her suggests she will be given time to get used to her new role. And of course, she will have the sounding board of Michael Ring available during at least the early stages of her political career.
While General Election 2024 campaign was too short, evidenced by a poor turnout nationally, the count in Mayo over last Saturday and Sunday was a very enjoyable one, with plenty of thrills and spills.
New Returning Officer Ann Marie Courell and her staff have to be commended for the very professional manner in which they ran the count. The TF Royal Theatre is certainly one of the most atmospheric count centres in the country.
The focus will now turn to the formation of a new Government, where Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will once again take centre stage, but the result of the Mayo constituency has shown that future elections could see candidates outside of the two main parties making further gains.