Immigration was said to be a major concern amongst the electorate in the lead-up to Friday's local and European elections, with much pre-election discussion focused on the topic.
Dozens of candidates ran campaigns focused on the issue, spoke at protests or attended sit-ins or marches, in the run-up to the vote. With news on the European counts awaited, we already know several have seen success in the local elections.
Yet more went close, and will likely hope to use this election as a springboard for future election bids.
The votes cast for anti-immigration and fringe candidates represent a relatively small percentage compared to those cast for the established parties.
However, those parties will be closely watching how these candidates fared on Friday, with a general election looming and the topics being raised on doorsteps across the country.
Here’s a run-down, starting in the capital.
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council will have at least two councillors who have featured prominently in protests linked to the accommodation of people seeking international protection.
Independent Malachy Steenson was elected in the North Inner City on Sunday afternoon.
Cllr Steenson, a former member of the Workers’ Party, was a prominent figure in the East Wall Says No group which opposed the housing of asylum seekers at a former ESB office block in the East Wall area of Dublin.
He also spoke at numerous anti-immigration marches in Dublin city and beyond in recent months.
After being elected, he said "it is a fabulous result for the nationalist movement in Ireland, for the people of Ireland, we’re taking our nation back."
His victory was welcomed by - among others - Ben Gilroy, a serial 'lay litigant’ in the courts, who set up Direct Democracy Ireland during the banking crisis around 2008.
Cllr Steenson is no stranger to elections, having run in the same constituency in 2014. This time he quadrupled his vote from a decade ago and will take his seat in the council when it next sits.
Cllr Steenson also received 7,128 votes in the Dublin constituency for the European Parliament.
Another candidate who will join Cllr Steenson on Dublin City Council is Gavin Pepper, who stood in the Ballymun-Finglas ward.
Cllr Pepper polled fifth in the six-seat LEA with 1,126 first count votes, and was elected second in the ward, behind Fianna Fáil’s Keith Connolly.
In April, Cllr Pepper clashed with Green Party councillor Hazel Chu. He filmed her as she was on the phone, while saying repeatedly "Hazel, do ya like looking down on the working class people, do ya?"
In recent years, he has been travelling from site to site to protest against proposals for migrant accommodation. He was one of several speakers at a major anti-immigration rally in Dublin city centre on 6 May.
In a speech on Custom House Quay, he said he opposed unvetted male migrants, and that he wanted to "send them home" as "Ireland is full."
In the same ward, deputy leader of the National Party, Stephen Redmond, secured 930 first preference votes. Enough of Mr Redmond’s transfers went to Cllr Pepper to push him above the necessary quota.
This was Mr Redmond’s second bid for office having stood for the National Party in Dublin North West in the 2020 General Election, when he secured 471 first preference votes.
Elsewhere in the city, in the Artane-Whitehall local electoral area, Kevin Coyle was in contention for a seat all through Sunday, missing out on the final seat.
Mr Coyle got more first preferences than both Sinn Féin candidates, including Larry O’Toole who has been a councillor since 1999.
Mr Coyle received the highest first preference vote of a small number of staunch anti-immigration candidates. If his first preferences were combined with those of Rowan Croft - a former British army soldier and once-prominent online influencer who was subsequently banned by mainstream platforms - he would have topped the poll.
A first-time candidate, Mr Coyle was at the Sandwith Street protests in May 2023, after which he drew criticism from People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy for social media images.
Mr Coyle posed with an airsoft weapon and posted the caption "Let’s go take all ‘them’ out."
He subsequently said the posts were a "joke."
Ten days ago, he posted a video from outside the office of the same TD. He pointed to a poster from the window of the TD's office which said 'End the Occupation of Palestine.'
Commenting on the poster, Mr Coyle said "End the occupation of Palestine? End the occupation of Ireland, you mean, with all these Muslim f*ckers."
South Dublin County Council
Hermann Kelly, former press officer for Nigel Farage and now leader of the Irish Freedom Party, was celebrating on Saturday afternoon.
"Take a bow!" he tweeted, "Our first elected councillor: Glen Moore in for a seat Palmerstown-Fonthill, Dublin for Irish Freedom Party."
Not yet elected by Sunday night - but looking likely to be so - the IFP’s Mr Moore is a regular attendee at anti-immigration marches. Online, he posts content supporting Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders and Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
During the campaign, Mr Moore responded when independent candidate in the Dublin European constituency Dr Umar Al-Qadri tweeted "I believe in freedom of choice. All people should have the freedom to choose who they would like to marry."
Mr Moore responded demanding Dr al-Qadri more specifically say he supports same-sex marriage.
"I dare you to answer... This is why Islam cannot coexist with the people of Ireland," Moore posted.
Mr Kelly had yet more reason to cheer on Sunday, congratulating Malachy Steenson, and cheering the results of other party candidates.
However, it appears unlikely any other IFP candidates will gain seats this time around. In many constituencies enough votes were cast to elect anti-immigration-focused candidates but these were split across several individuals, resulting in none gaining a seat.
"Our policies are good, the brand is good. We'll reach out to others to unify," Mr Kelly tweeted.
Absolutely fantastic day..Maith thú Gavin Pepper @gavpepper85 elected along with @MalachySteenson and hopefully official soon @moorsey100 What a day for Ireland!
— Hermann Kelly (@hermannkelly) June 9, 2024
Pic with @Lad10Irish pic.twitter.com/TBhulX5clk
Elsewhere in South Dublin County Council, incumbent councillor Paddy Holohan has won a seat in Tallaght South and also won a seat in Tallaght Central.
The former UFC fighter’s campaign was less hardline than other candidates and more focused on local issues, including housing and health. He focused on protecting the use of cash and said he wanted to see "respect for our céad míle fáilte."
He attended protests at local sites proposed for migrant accommodation, but appeared to focus on meeting locals rather than individuals who attend anti-immigration events across the city.
At one such protest he was criticised by far-right agitators as a "sell-out".
Cllr Holohan has reposted fringe content on social media which claims Irish sovereignty is for sale, and references ‘chemtrails.’
"We have not given authority to any government to modify our weather," one recent post shared by Cllr Holohan says.
The former Sinn Féin representative was temporarily suspended from the party in 2020 over comments he made on podcasts about Leo Varadkar’s heritage.
During the pandemic, the party called on him to remove a post he made supporting a beauty salon owner who was arrested for opening her business in breach of Covid-19 restrictions.
He subsequently left the party and declared as an independent.
Fingal County Council
West of the city centre, in the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart ward of Fingal County Council, the Deputy Leader of the National Party, Patrick Quinlan, is in the mix for a seat.
He has called for mass deportations and uses terms such as "plantation" when referring to migration. He will be hoping for transfers from Suzanne Delaney will push him into a seat.
In the final days of the campaign, Ms Delaney, who's associated with an anti-vaccine, anti-migration website, was recorded on video by someone she knew as she followed Green Party minister, Roderic O’Gorman, down Blanchardstown Main Street making comments.
Ms Delaney appears to believe there is a hidden State conspiracy to kidnap and-or disappear children. She received first preference votes from 388 people in the remarkably tightly-contested ward.
The first preference result put her tenth, but still within 300 votes of all nine candidates above her. No one got anywhere near a quota, so transfers will determine much in the five-seat Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart area.
Mr Quinlan will be hoping Delaney’s transfer will see him elected.
Several fringe and anti-immigration candidates have also polled well outside of the capital.
Cavan County Council
In the Ballyjamesduff LEA in Co Cavan, Lester James Gordon of The Irish People finished seventh in a six-seat ward.
Ahead of the election, Mr Gordon told his local newspaper the Anglo Celt that he believes there is "geo-engineering going on, with chemtrails," and that an unnamed entity is "controlling climates and causing it to rain."
He also added that while he’s "not against migrants," he does think there is "an element of bad, rubbish that are thugs and prisoners, getting into this country and doing nothing."
After the vote, he told the same paper that "the migrant issue" came up most for him on the doorsteps.
The group Mr Gordan is affiliated with, The Irish People, posted multiple eye-catching luminous green and black posters as part of their campaign. One showed a torn shamrock alongside the text "Ethnocide: The deliberate and systemic destruction of the culture of an ethnic group."
Kerry County Council
Michelle Keane missed out on a seat in Castleisland, but polled well on first preferences, coming in ahead of both Sinn Fein candidates on the first count.
Ms Keane polled 10% of the first preference votes, outpolling Sinn Féin’s Deirdre Bell, who got 727 votes, beating her on her home patch of Knocknagoshel.
Thanking supporters in a TikTok on Sunday morning, Ms Keane said "I was unheard of on the political scene nine weeks ago," and announced she would be running in the next general election.
During the campaign, she welcomed Ireland First candidate Derek Blighe to Kerry, in a video posted outside a local mosque.
She also posted a video in which she held a sign saying ‘Ireland is Full’ and warned that a local building could be used to house "migrant scumbags who have raped women and tortured children around the world."
Cork County Council
In the Fermoy local electoral area, the aforementioned Ireland First candidate Derek Blighe secured about 5% of first preferences, before being eliminated on the sixth count.
Also running in the Ireland South European race, Mr Blighe has been involved in protests outside buildings earmarked to accommodate migrants in Dublin, Wicklow, Listowel, Lismore in Co Waterford, as well as in Mitchelstown and Fermoy in north Cork.
Cork City Council
Ross Lahive stood in the Cork North West ward for Cork City Council on behalf of the Irish People Party, and also in the Ireland South European race. He picked up 724 first preference local votes before being eliminated.
Over the last year or so, Mr Lahive was one of small number of people protesting outside libraries around the country because they were making certain LGBT-friendly books available.
In his pre-election campaign material Mr Lahive said he has been "leading the charge in protecting children from gender ideation and sexualisation."
He was in the shake-down for the final seat, which was won by Brian McCarthy of People Before Profit-Solidarity.
Donegal County Council
Niall McConnell, an anti-migration presence on social media and YouTube, polled well in the Lifford-Stranorlar LEA in Co Donegal, picking up 880 first preference before being eliminated on the ninth count.
Following his elimination, he posted a video to his YouTube channel where he said he would continue his campaigning and that "there is a mass invasion happening" in Ireland.
Mr McConnell also ran in the 2020 General Election on what he called a "pro-Christian, anti-immigration" ticket, picking up 580 first preference votes in the Donegal constituency.
A regular theme of his videos is the claim that Irish people are being "replaced" by migrants.
Mayo County Council
In the Castlebar ward independent candidate Stephen Kerr is associated with an online platform that primarily posts about immigration issues and anti-vaccine content.
Leading up to polling day, Mr Kerr posted a video on his platform alleging ‘election interference’ involving "a dozen and a half African people" but did not provide any evidence to support his claims.
He was in the mix until the final count, which saw three seats decided.
