Cllr O’Brien bemoans ‘tsunami’ of votes leaving south Mayo

DEFEATED general election candidate Patsy O’Brien has bemoaned the amount of votes that left the south Mayo area in the recent election.

Cllr O’Brien, who missed out on a Dáil seat to Aontú’s Paul Lawless, took issue with voters in south Mayo who cast votes for candidates outside the area. The Independent claimed that over 3,000 votes left the region during the election.

According to Fine Gael tally figures, approximately 7,400 first preference votes out of over 14,293 valid votes in the Claremorris Local Electoral Area were cast for candidates other than Martina Jennings (Fine Gael) and Cllr O’Brien. Both are based a short distance from each other, in Lissatava and Robeen respectively.

Over 1,800 votes went to Knock-based Deputy Paul Lawless, followed by Fine Gael’s Alan Dillon on 1,153 and Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers on 1,134.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, Cllr O’Brien said that ‘a tsunami’ of first preferences and transfers had left the south Mayo region.

As expected, Cllr O’Brien attracted the highest tally in Claremorris with 4,292 votes, followed by Ms Jennings who tallied 2,514. However, Cllr O’Brien only received 575 transfers from Ms Jennings, after her elimination on the fourth count. Her Fine Gael colleague, Alan Dillon, got 1,100 of her transfers - more than double what Cllr O’Brien received.

Cllr O’Brien said that he could not see himself winning a seat after observing the transfer patterns in the early stages of the count. He conceded defeat to Cllr Lawless shortly before he was elected on the eleventh count after overtaking Cllr O’Brien on transfers following the distribution of Stephen Kerr’s (Independent) transfers on the sixth count.

“I have no problem about democracy, but there was no way in the world of God that we will ever supply a TD in south Mayo when you see really what has happened over the weekend, when you see the 3,000 votes, practically, went out of the region,” Cllr O’Brien said.

“People want to look at themselves when they start voting…I’m not giving about it, I’m just saying, the basic facts of the matter is, I feel that if I got a bit more support I certainly would have won a seat.”

Cllr O’Brien congratulated all five Mayo TDs on their election and commiserated with Martina Jennings, adding that he was ‘delighted and honoured’ to stand in the election.

His congratulations were echoed by the other elected members of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, who also paid tribute to retired TDs Eamon Ó Cuív (Fianna Fáil) and Michael Ring (Fine Gael) for their service to the south Mayo area.

Padraic Flanagan, Head of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District, said it ‘spoke volumes’ for the municipal district area that four candidates from the area; Deputy Paul Lawless, Cllr Gerry Murray (Sinn Féin), Martina Jennings and Cllr O’Brien, had put their name forward for the general election.