Aontú’s O’Reilly elected first count

 

Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly has been elected in the Bailieborough-Cootehill LEA on the first count, a remarkable feat for both the first time election candidate and her party which has effectively only been in existence around 20 weeks.

A former Fianna Fail candidate from Bailieborough, O’Reilly was co-opted to the council in place of Niamh Smyth TD when she earned a seat in Leinster House back in 2016.

She defected to Peadar Toibin’s new party after openly disagreeing with Fianna Fail’s stance on a number of issues, including their position as a party in the abortion referendum.

O’Reilly admitted, that at one stage she considered quitting politics altogether, so disillusioned had she become, but with the result of 1576 first preference votes she now feels “vindicated”.

Aontú Leader Peadar Toibin arrived to the Cavan count centre in ebullient mood, where he proudly suggested that his fledgling party are in a “strong position” heading into any future General Election in Cavan-Monaghan based on this election’s showing.

A surplus of 71 votes is set to be divided.

Returning Officer Eoin Doyle delivered the results, and adjourned the remainder of the count until tomorrow morning, starting again at 10am.

A total of 13 candidates ran in the Bailieborough-Cootehill LEA.

Next in line for a possible seat is Fianna Fail’s Clifford Kelly, on who presently sits on 1363 votes.

Cllr Kelly is hopeful of retaining a seat he earned back in 2014, having initially lost it when Fianna Fail took a beating in the polls nationally in 2009.

He was highly critical of how Fianna Fail ran their election campaign, both locally and across the region.

“They definitely were of no help to us as councillors either. No organisation, no consultation, no plan whatsoever, no structure in place or anything, they were a hinderance more than anything else,” Cllr Kelly said.

Other candidates over the 1000 mark and in with a shout, with their fate one way or another to be sealed tomorrow, are Val Smith from Lavey on 1150, and Cootehill’s Carmel Brady (FG) on 1021. while Francis McDermott (FF) from Shercock is next in line on 929, and Aidan Fitzpatrick (FF) on 905. Gerry Murray (FF) is on 785 votes, and both Sinn Fein candidates are practically neck and neck with just four votes dividing them in the late 700’s.

First eliminated from from the Bailieborough-Cootehill LEA is Labour’s Mary Roche, on 114.