Count day two is ramping up and seats are rapidly being filled nationwide. In the meantime, all across the country, stories are emerging from Election 24 – here's eight worth watching.
1) Labour roils in good news
With the Greens wilting and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil looking like they will need to stretch to achieve a Dáil majority, much discussion is circulating about a potential new small party for coalition.
Having lived through it before, and suffered the consequences, some in the Labour party are wary of being roped back into coalition with bigger parties.
Labour MEP Aodhan O'Riordáin made his take clear. He was first elected as a TD in 2011 during a Labour rise – the party then went into government with Fine Gael – but lost his seat during the party’s 2016 post-government collapse.
"[If] you see what’s just happened to the Green Party and also what’s happened to us in the past, and expect a completely different scenario to play out... you’d want your head examined," he said.
He added that he thought Fine Gael’s treatment of the Greens has been "really awful" and that they "totally threw them under the bus."
Given the seat numbers Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are likely to get, Mr O’Riordáin said, "the people have decided that they want Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to govern the place, so it’s not as if we have a thumping mandate."
However, he said, he doesn’t know how others in the Labour party feel about re-entering coalition, but in his view it have to be "an unbelievable deal."
"Fine Gael, in particular, would probably have to rip up their manifesto, throw it in the bin, and start with a new slate," he said.
Much head examining may await.
2) High-profile anti-immigration candidates gone
In an earlier takeaway looking at tallies and the Exit Poll we noted the indications were that many candidates who stood largely on an anti-immigration platform would not make it into the next Dáil. That seems to be playing out in the counting too.
High profile Dublin City Councillor, Gavin Pepper, was eliminated in Dublin North-West earlier today after receiving a total of 3,087 votes. Malachy Steenson lost out in Dublin Central too - he later decried the entry of Gerard Hutch into the race, which he said stymied his result.
Philip Sutcliffe in Dublin South Central, Stephen Kerr in Mayo, Kevin Coyle in Dublin Bay North - who all took staunch anti-immigration stances - are officially out of the race in their constituencies.
Patrick Quinlan from the National Party is still in the running in Dublin West but with three of the five seats already filled and much to come down to transfers between centre-left candidates, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be elected.
3) The birthday boy celebrates with a seat
It was a morning of double celebrations for Fianna Fáil’s Albert Dolan, who took the second seat in Galway East, on his 26th birthday.
Is he in contention for youngest TD? We await. He has already got the Galway’s Youngest Councillor gong under his belt, and was Galway County Council’s youngest ever Cathaoirleach too, at age 25.
Fianna Fáil’s James O’Conor was the youngest TD in the last Dáil and has retained his seat in Cork East, but at 27 years old he’s a comparative veteran. Simon Harris held the belt too, back in the day (2011), and whatever happened to him?
They’d make you sick.
4) Turnout on the decline, it seems
With a first count now in from each constituency, we have a first official look at the national turnout and it is down again on 2020, to 59.7%, marking the lowest percentage turnout since 1923, the last time the number was below 60%.
It also shows a pattern of decline, with the number dropping in each of the last four elections, which many commentators have said is worrying and could indicate a lack of confidence in the democratic process.
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However, that all comes with a note of warning. The turnout percentage is calculated based on the registered number of potential voters, and the Electoral Commission has warned that the accuracy of that register will soon be reassessed.
5) Weighing things up in Cavan-Monaghan
Cavan-Monaghan has 20 candidates on the ballot and it took until midday today before we finally heard the result of a first count.
Around half the candidates are thought to be in contention for a seat, so - election cliché klaxon - a dogfight is expected.
In a bid to speed things up, additional hardware was wheeled in to settle nerves and avoid potential demands for future recounts. Local journalists at Cavan Leisure Centre reported that two extra weighing scales were brought in to reweigh every voting bundle.
Of much interest to the count centre coterie there is how the Fine Gael vote will hold up.
Outgoing FG TD Heather Humphries was the poll-topper in the constituency in 2020. This time the party is running three candidates, seemingly aiming to mop up the vote and hold the seat through internal Fine Gael transfers.
According to the first count, the Fine Gael share of the vote is down on 2020 by about 5%. Insert here the obligatory 'all about the transfers’ count day two reference.
6) The thankful people of West Cork
Yesterday’s result in Cork South West marked the first time in 27 years that West Cork re-elected the same three TDs.
Michael Collins of Independent Ireland, Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats, and Fianna Fáil’s Christopher O’Sullivan have all held onto their seats.
Mr O’Sullivan is also the first Fianna Fáil TD since Flor Crowley in 1973 to retain a seat in their second election in the Cork South-West constituency.
7) Civil War shootout in Cork North West
It was a straight shootout between the civil war parties in Cork North West with two Fine Gael and two Fianna Fáil candidates fighting it out for the three seats on offer.
In one corner were Fianna Fáilers Aindrais Moynihan and Michael Moynihan (no relation). Opposing them were Fine Gaelers John Paul O'Shea and Michael Creed, a cousin of the former agriculture minister of the same name.
In the end it was the Moynihan Not-Brothers who emerged victorious with Aindrais topping the poll and Michael picking up the third and final seat. John Paul O’Shea was wedged in between, getting elected to the Dáil at the third time of asking.
8) The rarified status of ‘Barry’
New father, and partner of Holly Cairns, ‘Barry’, has managed to reach the rarified status of the One Name Person in recent days, something akin to Adele, Madonna, Cher, or Liberace - or in Irish political terms, ‘Bertie,’ ‘Mary Lou’ or ‘Verona.’
In recent days, across media and politics, congratulations flooded in on the birth of their child to Ms Cairns and ‘Barry’ from the great offices of the State, not least Uachtarán na hÉireann.
Commentators also made regular reference to simply ‘Barry’ in count coverage, perhaps out of an abundance of caution due to perceived concerns about his personal privacy, because the original announcement on the birth congratulated ‘Holly and Barry.’
However, staff at this takeaway have been assured by the Social Democrats that there are no privacy concerns in relation to revealing Barry’s original surname, and can detail he is the Person Previously Known As ‘Barry Looney.’
