How it started ...
Counting in Kerry ended at around 10pm on Sunday night, with four outgoing TDs returning to Dáil Éireann with Fianna Fáil swooping in to take the seat vacated by Fine Gael's Brendan Griffin.
It was late on Saturday night by the time the first count was completed, but as expected Michael Healy-Rae headed the field by some distance, a whopping 18,596 votes or 23.7% of first preferences.
There was some time to wait for the next selection. Sinn Féin's Pa Daly passed the quota threshold on count 7 on Sunday afternoon before Danny Healy-Rae followed in his brother's footsteps after the eleventh count.
It is worth noting that his 11% of first preferences means the Healy-Raes support totalled more than 34%, an increase of 1.2% on their 2020 election performance.
As Sunday evening became night, outgoing Minister for Education Norma Foley was next home.
She was finally elected on count 13 alongside her running mate Michael Cahill.
From early Saturday, tally figures predicted that Fine Gael hopes of holding onto Mr Griffin's seat were on shaky ground and so it proved.
The party's candidate Billy O'Shea trailed Mr Cahill after the first count and he never recovered the ground.
Subsequent transfers continued to favour Mr Cahill and the veteran politician eventually secured the fifth and final seat.
Incredibly, it is the first time Fine Gael has not held a seat in Co Kerry since 1944 - 1948.
In total, Kerry will return one Sinn Féin, two Independents and two Fianna Fáil representatives to the 34th Dáil.
How it finished...
