Thirteen Mayo council seats filled after night of counting in Castlebar

THIRTEEN out of the 30 seats on Mayo County Council have been filled with history made in Claremorris with the first Aontú candidate to be elected.

After a mammoth 14 counts in the Castlebar Electoral Area which lasted through the night, the seven seats were filled with Independent Harry Barrett making a return to local politics.

The national school teacher had previously served as a Labour councillor on Castlebar Town Council but up to now had been unsuccessful both as a Labour candidate and an Independent to make the jump onto Mayo County Council.

Barrett received first preference 743 votes but was able to benefit from transfers which eventually took him ahead of Martin McLoughlin (FF), Donna Sheridan (FG) and Stephen Kerr (Ind) and he was elected on the 13 count.

Sitting councillor Martin McLoughlin lost his seat while Sheridan held off the challenge of Kerr to take the seventh and final seat.

Earlier, sitting councillors Independent Michael Kilcoyne and Fine Gael's Ger Derre were both elected on the first count after they both exceeded the quota of 1,878. Kilcoyne topped the poll with 2,405 with Derre taking 1,958.

During the night veteran councillor Al McDonnell was re-elected as was party colleague, Blackie Gavin and Fine Gael's Cyril Burke.

In the Claremorris Electoral Area, there was history with Aontú candidate Paul Lawless winning the party's first seat on Mayo County Council while Alma Gallagher (FG) was the woman elected to the Claremorris Electoral Area.

Gallagher was chosen to replace retiring Fine Gael councillor John Cribbin in Ballyhaunis and she was able to hold off the challenge of Stephen Nolan of Fianna Fáil in the east Mayo town.

Claremorris-based Fine Gael councillor Tom Connolly was the biggest casualty of the count with Lawless taking the final seat to eliminate Connolly.

Patsy O'Brien (Ind) topped the poll and was elected on the first count with 2,739 and was soon followed by Claremorris-based Independent Richard Finn. Ballinrobe-based sitting councillor Michael Burke and Damien Ryan (FF) were both also returned to make up the six seats in the electoral area.

The breakdown of the 13 seats currently filled are five seats for Fine Gael, four Independents, three Fianna Fáíl and one Aontú.

Counting is continuing in the other four electoral areas.