Grealish elected, O’Mahony out

OVER THE LINE Independent candidate Noel Grealish celebrates his election to Galway West.


Ciara Galvin
Galway

The number 13 proved lucky for some but not others in Galway West, with Independent Noel Grealish elected and FG’s John O’Mahony eliminated in the 13th count.
Receiving a staggering 1,362 transfers from Fianna Fail’s John Connolly, Noel Grealish took the second of the five seats with 11, 073 votes. Although this is Grealish’s fourth time being elected a TD for the constituency, this marks the first time he has ever reached the quota.
Independent Catherine Connolly was boosted yet again, thanks to 965 transfers and now looks certain to take the third seat. She is currently on 9,842.
Sinn Fein’s Trevor O’Clochartaigh benefitted from 443 transfers and now sits at 7,991, behind FG’s Sean Kyne on 8,171.
Though Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton is trailing behind O’Clochartaigh on 7,024, it is expected that transfers from unsuccessful party colleague O’Mahony will put her ahead of O’Clochartaigh in the race for the final seat.
The only Mayo candidate, John O’Mahony, was eliminated on 6,122. Having moved from the Mayo constituency into Galway West following the boundary shakeup, the Ballaghaderreen resident had it all to do to poll strongly.
Though being the only Mayo candidate and expected to do well in south Mayo, O’Mahony pulled in approximately 2,432 from the south Mayo ballot boxes, with 2,932 of the 5,364 south Mayo voters choosing Galway-based candidates.
O’Mahony’s failure to be re-elected could be partly due to his poor transfer rate. Candidates from Galway City tended to transfer to fellow city candidates, leaving O’Mahony trailing from early on.