Dividing lines: some voters ignore county allegiances

A total of 60,063 people were eligible to vote in Cavan and 49,089 in Monaghan.

Despite Cavan having the lion's share of registered voters in this constituency, the return has been markedly in favour of Monaghan, with two of their candidates currently topping the poll and others making decent incursions across the county divide.

A total of 60,063 people were eligible to vote in Cavan and 49,089 in Monaghan, leaving a total poll of 109,152, though one potential outcome could see four TDs from the Farney join the 34th Dáil.

Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy is chief among them. He emerged from Cavan in 2020 with just over 3,000 first preferences, though with strict party vote management this time round he still came out with near to 1,900.

In particular he did well among voters in the east of the county- Bailieborough, Cootehill and Kingscourt, before that influence waned, but not entirely.

Unexpected was how well running-mate Cathy Bennett would do. The first time candidate and poll-topper in her own Municipal District area in Monaghan rivalled Carthy by getting more than 1,100 in Cavan.

After that it was Fine Gael's David Maxwell on 578; followed by Liberty Republic's Shane Mulligan and the Green's Eddie O'Gara - both with less than 100.

On the converse, only Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly and Fianna Fáil's Niamh Smyth made any real headway in Monaghan.

O'Reilly got over 1,000 votes here last time round. Anecdotally she had more people canvassing for her in Monaghan than mobilised in Cavan, and the result was a return of nearly 600 more votes than previously achieved.

Smyth, shy of 1,600 herself, and with a constituency office in Castleblayney, got 1,250 first preferences from Monaghan voters in 2020.

Of the other remaining Cavan candidates, the Irish Freedom Party's Val Martin did next best, nearly equalling his total vote in Cavan.