How it started ...
A returning and two new candidates were elected as the first TDs for the new constituency of Offaly.
The final seat was filled at the count in St Brendan's Community School in Birr at 1.51am on Sunday morning.
First to be elected at around 11.13pm on Saturday and retaining her seat was Carol Nolan, the Independent candidate from just outside Birr.
Ms Nolan is joined by Fianna Fáil’s Tony McCormack, from Tullamore, and Fine Gael’s John Clendennen, from Kinnitty, both first-time general election candidates.
Mr McCormack’s election ensured the Fianna Fáil seat was retained after Barry Cowen vacated it when he was elected an MEP in June.
While Mr Clendennen regained the Fine Gael seat formerly held by Marcella Corcoran Kennedy - she lost out in the 2020 election after nine years in the Dáil.
Offaly was part of the Laois-Offaly five seat Dáil constituency in 2020 general election.
Now, it is a stand-alone constituency with three seats in Dáil Éireann.
From the early tallies on Saturday morning, there were four clear front-runners, including Ms Nolan who was the only incumbent after being re-elected as TD for Laois-Offaly in 2020.
The race was tightly contested by three candidates for the remaining two seats with Mr Clendennen, Sinn Féin's Aoife Masterson and Mr McCormack, three sitting county councillors, neck-and-neck from the tallies throughout the count.
But it was a bitterly disappointed and emotional Ms Masterson who lost out on the night despite polling strongly across the day, in keeping with a weaker performance for Sinn Féin across the country following the exit polls.
It was also clear from the tallies that, similar to the picture across the country, it was going to be a bad day for the Green Party.
The Green Party's Pippa Hackett, a Senator and 'super junior’ minister at the Department of Agriculture, polled at around 2% and was excluded on the second count with just 934 votes.
How it ended ...
