Marathon Castlebar count ends with Barrett delight

WITH a bumper 19 candidates in the field in the Castlebar Local Electoral Area, it was always expected there was going to be a marathon count, but no one foresaw a scenario where it would take some 23 hours to elect seven candidates in the county town electoral area.

The 47 Castlebar boxes were first opened on Saturday morning at the Count Centre in the TF Royal Theatre at 9am and it was nearly 8am on Sunday morning when the final three seats in the seven-seat municipal district were filled.

Should this have happened? The simple answer is no. It was unexpectable that family members and supporters of most of the candidates, council staff and members of the press had to forego a full night's sleep when there was no legal obligation to get the count finished, but the ramifications for such a decision are due a longer analysis on another day.

In the end, the day belonged to Independent candidate Harry Barrett who proved that being transfer-friendly is every bit as important as gaining a high first preference vote.

The former Labour town councillor failed to gain a seat in the 2019 election when he only garnered 620 first preference votes, and he probably didn't hold up much hope of gaining a seat when he only increased his vote by 123 votes when the first count was revealed.

But he gradually worked his way into the race and substantial transfers from counts 8 to 11 when candidates Kamal Uddin, Joe Daly, Donal Geraghty and Gerry Loftus were eliminated, meant he closed the gap on fellow Independent Stephen Kerr. The Breaffy native polled an impressive 899 first preference in his first Mayo County Council election but he only gained two transfers over 30 votes (36 from the surplus of Michael Kilcoyne, and 61 after the elimation of Donal Geraghty) and that ultimately proved his undoing in the race for those final seats.

_{Cllr Donna Sheridan of Fine Gael (centre) pictured with supporters at the count centre at the TF Royal Hotel and Theatre in Castlebar (Pic: Conor McKeown)}

Concerted campaign

Barrett announced his intention to run in the council election well over a year ago and a concerted campaign in the media on many high-profile issues around the county town in the end stood him in good stead.

He will be the only new face in the Castlebar Municipal District where he will take the place of Fianna Fail councillor Martin McLoughlin, who paid the price for a low first preference total of 834 votes.

He and sitting Fine Gael councillor Donna Sheridan knew after the first count that they would probably be in a battle with Kerr for those final seats, but Sheridan proved more transfer-friendly than McLoughlin, who served eight years on Mayo County Council after first being co-opted to the council after Lisa Chambes became a TD.

The marathon count only really became interesting very late into the night, as early morning tallies revealed that five councillors were pretty much guaranteed re-election.

Michael Kilcoyne again enjoyed that poll-topping feeling with some 2,405 votes, down 1400 on his 2019 total. It was Fine Gael's Ger Deere who put in one of the most eye-catching performances of the weekend when he was also elected on the first count with an impressive 1,958 votes, up nearly 700 votes from 2019.

Long-time councillors Al McDonnell, Blackie Gavin and Cyril Burke knew from mid-morning that their totals were almost certain to get them elected, but it was always going to be a very long wait with so many candidates in the field.

Slow bicycle race

The count really did turn into a slow bicycle race as one by one the candidates with small first preference totals were eliminated, with their transfers really making very little difference to the running order for most of the count.

Sinn Féin's Donna Hyland ended up with a respectable final total of 1,012 but her party will undoubtedly be very disappointed with a first preference vote of just 599. Her running mate Maura O'Sullivan only polled 206 votes so Sinn Fein's overall percentage total did not come close to the impressive performance of Rose Conway-Walsh in Castlebar in the last General Election.

Overall, things ended up predictable enough in the county town but the performance of Stephen Kerr certainly raise a few eyebrows and he will feel he now has a base created to have another real go in the 2029 local elections, or possible in the upcoming General Election.