O'Reilly wins the battle of Bailieborough

Sarah O'Reilly topped the first preference votes amongst the people of Bailieborough, according to the tallies.

The 2,299 residents who voted in the east Cavan town had two local candidates from which to choose; the Aontú woman and Niamh Smyth of Fianna Fáil. Almost exactly half of those who voted put a number one beside one of those two names.

O'Reilly out-polled the out-going TD, Smyth by 657 votes to 489. When O'Reilly made her entry into local politics it was as a Fianna Fáil councillor, and she was closely aligned with Smyth, having been co-opted onto her council seat.

Now with Aontú, Cllr O'Reilly not only out-polled Smyth in her hometown, but also the combined total of the three Fianna Fáil candidates (Brendan Smith 52; Robbie Gallagher 11).

While O'Reilly may have won the battle of Bailieborough, Niamh Smyth is better positioned in the war for a Dáil seat with 5,776 first preference votes (tallies) compared to 5,098.

Considering the focus of those two prominent local faces, Sinn Féin will be content with their performance. They claimed 583 votes from the town with Pauline Tully the major beneficiary (374), and her Farney colleagues Matt Carthy (131) and Cathy Bennett (78) absorbing significant numbers.

The polite way to put it for Fine Gael is that they have some room for improvement in Bailieborough attracting a combined 267 first preference votes. TP O'Reilly from Virginia amassed 132 votes, while his running mate Carmel Brady from Cootehill got 103 first preference votes, with Monaghan's David Maxwell swelling the number by 32.

Shane P O'Reilly from not too far away in Mullagh meanwhile got 123 first preferences according to the tallies.

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