Hannigan the surprise as Labour Party tops poll

While many had predicted that Regina Doherty would do well, and that Thomas Byrne would be in difficulty in Meath East, few expected that Labour's Dominic Hannigan would top the poll and be the first elected in the constituency. It was a stunning performance from the senator and former Meath county councillor, who had been expected to do well and be in contention for the third seat. However, he increased his first preferences from 5,136 in 2007 to 8,994 in Friday's poll, coming in ahead of Shane McEntee, the sitting Fine Gael TD, and Cllr Regina Doherty of Ratoath, both of whom went on to be elected. Doherty, whose mother ran in a local election in Dublin alongside Nora Owen three decades ago, passed out McEntee on the fourth and final count as both were elected along with Hannigan. Thomas Byrne joined the many Fianna Fail TDs from around the country who were booted out of the Dail, dropping over 2,000 first preferences to 5,715. In 2007, the then first time runner received 7,834 number ones and took the last seat in the constituency where Mary Wallace was the main candidate for the party, and the poll-topper in that election. Byrne was a high-profile TD, often sent out to defend the Fianna Fail party on national television and radio, and was regarded as a rising star in the party, where he hasn't been shy about his leadership ambitions. The national swing against Fianna Fail as well as local issues like the ban on the Ward Union Hunt damaged Fianna Fail in Meath East, and Mary Wallace had seen the writing on the wall, and deciding not to run in this election. The presence on the ballot paper of Sharon Keogan, a former FF national executive member who resigned to run as an independent, wouldn't have helped Byrne's cause. She polled 1,168 first preferences. The second Fianna Fail candidate, Ratoath councillor Nick Killian, was gone early on with only seven per cent of the vote, or 2,461 first preferences. Apart from Byrne, the only other candidate whose figures actually dropped was the Green Party candidate, Sean " Buachalla, down to 461 number ones from 1,330 in 2007. Fine Gael, as Fianna Fail have been doing for a long time, adopted a vote management strategy - something not usually operated by FG in Meath. The constituency was divided between Doherty and McEntee, with Doherty getting a bit of extra territory because of McEntee's higher profile as a TD. It worked perfecty with very little between them on the first count - 8,794 for the sitting TD and 8,677 for the Ratoath councillor - and Killian's elimination on the second count wasn't enough to push Byrne into contention. The success of the Fine Gael electioneering in Meath East could see McEntee's director of elections, John Farrelly, heading back to Leinster House as a senator if Enda Kenny decides to include him as a nominee. Thomas Byrne will be eying up a senate seat, too, although he'll have to look for it the hard way and go canvassing county councillors. And there will be plenty of competition from many more unseated FFers. Early tally figures at the Donaghmore/Ashbourne GAA Centre showed a fairly clear cut result, and it was just a matter of waiting for the formalities as " Buachalla and Keogan were eliminated, followed by Killian. The Fianna Fail candidate went before Independent councillor Joe Bonner, who increased his vote to 2,479 from 1,170 last time out, and Michael Gallagher, the former Sinn Fein councillor who more than doubled his vote to 3,795 first preferences on this occasion. The fourth count saw Hannigan reach 12,382 votes, well over the quota of 10,689, and the openly gay senator was the first candidate elected in Meath East, in recent times a stronghold of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. The swing towards Labour, combined with Hannigan's own efforts in recent years, as well as the absence of former Labour TD-turned-independent, Brian Fitzgerald, who would have brought a lot of the traditional Jimmy Tully-Labour vote with him, meant that the 'Red Flag' was once again being hoisted over the native county of the anthem's author, Jim Connell.