How it started...
The Tipperary North constituency made a reappearance for this election after a unified Tipperary was a five-seater for the 2020 election.
The election here looked fairly predictable with the presence of veterans Michael Lowry, Alan Kelly and Jackie Cahill.
Then Fianna Fáil's Jackie Cahill dropped a bombshell in late October and announced that he was not contesting the election due to medical advice.
The party decided to run a two-candidate slate of Cllr Michael Smith (son of former minister of defence Michael Smith) and first-time councillor Ryan O’Meara. The expectation was that Cllr Smith would prevail.
Counting was slow and the first count was not announced until late on Saturday evening. The turnout was an impressive 65.7%, well ahead of the national figure of 59.7%.
As expected, Independent Michael Lowry topped the poll with a whopping 12,538 votes, well ahead of the quota of 11,442.
Alan Kelly of Labour came second with 7,072 first preference votes, well placed to take a seat.
The Fianna Fáil duo threw up a surprise with Cllr O'Meara posting 5,654 first preferences ahead of Cllr Smith's 4,918 votes.
Fine Gael's Phyll Bugler took 4,432, not enough to keep her in contention.
The second count, the distribution of Mr Lowry’s surplus, did not happen until counting resumed on Sunday morning.
Sinn Féin made little impact and their two candidates were excluded in subsequent counts.
The elimination of Ms Bugler left Cllr Smith and Independent Jim Ryan deadlocked, seven votes apart. A full recount was called, scheduled for Monday morning.
The recount put Mr Ryan ahead and Cllr Smith’s votes were then distributed.
But that was as exciting as it got. Cllr Smith’s transfers went overwhelmingly to Cllr O’Meara and he was declared elected without reaching the count.
Alan Kelly’s second place was never in doubt as he picked up substantial transfers from the Greens, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
How it finished...
