FG gain seat on Cavan Town Council

Fine Gael became the largest party on Cavan Town Council for the first time in over 30 years when they gained a seat at the expense of Fianna Fáil at last week"s local elections. It was a magnificent performance by the party with outgoing Town Mayor Paddy O"Reilly topping the poll with 335 votes, exceeding the quota of 254. Jacqui Lewis, who was just pipped by six votes for the final seat in the last election, secured her seat on the final count. Fine Gael came perilously close to gaining another seat when newcomer Des Crossan was eliminated on the final count. He was in the mix right up until the end and at one stage in mid afternoon looked like clinching it. Cllr. O"Reilly was overjoyed to see FG once again become the largest party on the town council. 'We have not been in that position since 1979 when the late Tom Fitzpatrick, Andy O"Brien, and Annie Murray, along with myself and Paddy Carroll served on the council.' Labour"s Des Cullen who just held onto his seat in the last election sluiced home on this occasion being elected on the first count. He increased his party vote by over 100%. An elated Cullen was ecstatic with his performance. 'I"m thrilled with the result. I have managed to increase my vote substantially. The work I have done over the past five years has paid off.' It was a double joy for Cllr. Cullen last week as he was also appointed the new principal of Moyne Community School. Sinn Féin"s Brian McKeown comfortably held onto his seat being elected on the fifth count having acquired 240 first preferences. The strategy of running two candidates didn"t pay off on this occasion with his party colleague Richard Cassidy being eliminated on the same count. 'We are happy enough with our vote. We took a chance of running Richard. There was a protest vote out there but unfortunately we didn"t capitalise on it. People are not willing to give it to SF just yet,' said Cllr. McKeown. Fianna Fáil will have to take a long hard look at where they are heading at this junction. For a party that held the majority for the past 30 years, they just managed to hold onto three seats. Granted, Patricia Walsh got home on the first count with 258 but colleague Paddy Conaty had to wait until the seventh count, while Paddy Sexton crawled over the line on the eight count without reaching the quota. The usually reliable tallymen certainly got their figures wrong in the morning. At one stage they only had accounted for 1,780 first preferences when in fact the final figure was 2,567. At that stage it looked like four FG seats, three FF, one Labour and one SF. However, when the discrepancy was discovered, it brought Crossan right back into the equation and by mid afternoon FG were in with a shout of securing five seats. That was knocked on the head when Cassidy was eliminated. Crossan only gained seven transfers from Cassidy, while Sexton got 15, which was the deciding factor. Eight of the nine outgoing councillors were re-elected. The count was a long drawn out affair, which culminated shortly before 9pm. The first count was announced at around 2pm and the distribution of Paddy O"Reilly"s surplus of 81 took an astonishing two hours and 45 minutes. On behalf of the Fine Gael party, Cllr. O"Reilly congratulated all the successful candidates and commiserated with those who were not. He paid tribute to their director of elections Gene Murphy and to his wife Anna who did a lot of work for him behind the scene. 'Without her support I would not have topped the poll. Over the years she had given me tremendous support and I want to thank her for that.' Cllr. Des Cullen said it was not easy putting your name on a ballot paper and going before the electorate. He looked forward to working with colleagues on the new council and thanked his director of election Irene Donegan and his father Phil for their support and help on the canvass. Cllr. Paddy Conaty on behalf of the Fianna Fáil party admitted it had been a bad day for them but they would continue on and work closely with the new council. He too paid tribute to their director of elections Ray Carolan and the evergreen Molly Hickey. All three speakers paid tribute to returning officer Brian Hora and his staff. Mr. Hora thanked everyone for their patience in what turned out to be a long drawn out day. 'This was my first count and I wanted everything to run smoothly, so I"m sorry it there was any delay.' He thanked all of his staff for their hard work and supervisor Michael Geelan for his support.