How it started ...
Micheál Martin is someone who clearly enjoys success.
And the closer it is to home, the more he enjoys it.
He makes no secret of his loyalties to his local GAA club, Nemo Rangers.
There was not a ball kicked or a sliotar pucked in anger in 'Nemo' this weekend but Mr Martin will be particularly pleased with the set of results recorded there as the club's indoor astro pitch was converted into the count centre for the Cork South-Central constituency.
Most pleasing of all for him will have been his personal first preference vote of 14,526 - a poll-topping performance which saw him exceed the quota and secure his re-election on the first count.
Given that Sinn Féin's Donnchadh Ó'Laoghaire topped the poll there in 2020 and Fianna Fáil colleague Michael McGrath enjoyed that honour in 2016, it will have been particularly pleasing for the Fianna Fáil leader to regain his position at the top of the heap.
All politics is local, as they say.
Séamus McGrath's election was no less impressive.
The brother of the former Minister for Finance and now EU Commissioner Michael McGrath, Séamus only celebrated a thumping victory in the local elections in June, where he secured two-and-a-half quotas in the Carrigaline LEA, paving the way for his return to Cork County Council.
In this weekend's election, Mr McGrath secured 7,794 first preference votes and was elected in second place on the tenth count.
The position of Mr Ó'Laoghaire was never anything other than comfortable, but the collapse in his first preference vote will be a cause of concern for him and his party.
In 2020, he topped the poll in Cork South-Central, with 24.6% of the first preference vote.
Granted, this time around, he had a running mate, but a drop in his first preferences to just over 11% is hard to explain.
Pádraig Rice announced his arrival in Cork's elector politics in June's local elections, taking a first seat on Cork City Council for the Social Democrats.
But very few people predicted that he would perform as well as he did in a general election a few months later.
Remember the name as he is one to watch, for sure.
And then there was Jerry Buttimer.
The Seanad Cathaoirleach lost out at his party's selection convention, but was added to the Fine Gael ticket in Cork South-Central in mid-September after - apparently - the party conducted private polling in the constituency which indicated that it would lose its seat there unless his name was on the ticket.
Mr Buttimer saved Fine Gael's bacon in Cork South-Central.
At 57 years of age, he is now being referred to by his family as the Comeback Kid.
How it ended ...
