As well as many surprise wins in the General Election, there has been a number of shock seat losses around the country.

'The Cope' loses Donegal seat

First elected in 1981, Fianna Fáil's Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher went on to win eight further Dáil elections and three European Parliament elections.

After losing his seat as an MEP in 2014, he was re-elected to the Dáil in 2016. In a sure sign that Fianna Fáil has had a bad election, he lost his seat in Donegal today.

Other shock losses for Fianna Fáil include Timmy Dooley in Clare, Fiona O'Loughlin in Kildare South, John Curran in Dublin Mid-West and Declan Breathnach in Louth.

New Wexford TD loses seat

73 days ago Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne was elected on the back of 12,506 first preference votes in the Wexford by-election. Today he lost his seat.

In case you are wondering, he does not hold the unwelcome record of being the shortest ever sitting TD.

According to political pollster, Sean Donnelly, the shortest ever sitting TD was Sinn Féin TD Pierce McCann. He was a TD for Tipperary East from 21 January 1919 to 6 March 1919 - a total of 44 days.

He never sat in Dáil Éireann as he was in jail and died aged 36 in prison from the flu.

No Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael TD returned in two constituencies

Two constituencies have returned no TDs from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in Election 2020.

In Dublin South Central, outgoing Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne and outgoing Fianna Fáil Senator Catherine Ardagh failed to get elected.

The four successful candidates were Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Bríd Smith of Solidarity-People Before Profit, Patrick Costello from the Green Party and Joan Collins from Independents4Change.

Similarly, in the rural Roscommon-Galway constituency, outgoing Fianna Fáil TD Eugene Murphy lost his seat. His Fianna Fáil running mate Orla Leyden and Fine Gael's candidate Aisling Dolan also failed to get elected.

In one of the biggest surprises of the election, Sinn Féin's Claire Kerrane was elected. Outgoing Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice and Denis Naughten won the first two seats.

So Dublin South Central and Roscommon-Galway will have no TD from either of the traditional 'big two' parties in the new Dáil.

Carol Nolan holds on against the odds

Nobody gave her a chance. Bookmakers Boylesports had ranked eight other candidates ahead of her in the betting and placed her as 4/1 outsider. She was not tipped by anyone in the political bubble to retain her seat. But Independent Carol Nolan remarkably retained her seat in Laois-Offaly.

On a day when some Sinn Féin candidates were elected as much on the back of the party's surge in support, Carol Nolan looked to be doomed.

She departed Sinn Féin in June 2018 as she disagreed with the party's position on abortion. She had been elected to one of the three seats in Offaly in 2016.

The decision to reunite the two three-seat Laois and Offaly constituencies into one five-seat constituency was another factor that seemed to go against Ms Nolan in this election.

Shortly before 8pm tonight, she pulled off the improbable and regained her Dáil seat in one of the biggest shocks of the election.

Verona Murphy wins seat in Wexford

Last November, Fine Gael candidate Verona Murphy ran a controversial campaign in the Wexford by-election.

She apologised after claiming that some asylum seekers coming to Ireland have to be "deprogrammed" as they "carry angst" and may have been "infiltrated by ISIS".

The following month, she was deselected as a Fine Gael candidate for the general election. She said she would take Christmas to consider her political future.

Last month, she entered the general election race as an independent candidate. There were mixed views on how she would perform following her controversial election campaign in 2019.

Today, she caused some shock around the country when she was returned as one of the five TDs for Wexford.

Other unexpected wins for independent candidates came with Richard O'Donoghue in Limerick County and Cathal Berry in Kildare South.