TALLIES: Reasons to be happy, 1, 2, 3 for Sinn Féin
With 100% of the tally complete the headline figure makes for remarkable reading for Sinn Féin as they hold the first three positions.
Matt Carthy (9,355) Cathy Bennett (6,936) and Pauline Tully (6,437) have been the best three performers for first preference votes. Combined, the party claimed 33.01% of the vote.
These are still only tallies collected by the various party faithful as the votes are verified and sorted, but the election count has only just commenced (3.07pm).
Fianna Fáil are the next best positioned to claim seats with Brendan Smith (6,426) and Robbie Gallagher (6,297) holding fourth and fifth position respectively. Niamh Smyth is also still in contention in seventh place with (5,776) votes bringing Fianna Fáil's share of the vote up to 26.87%.
Fine Gael have not performed as well as they would have hoped, obtaining little over a fifth of the vote. Monaghan's David Maxwell was the best Fine Gael performer with 6,126 votes, Carmel Brady is in 10th position with 4260 votes, and TP O'Reilly 4,315. With the elimination of which ever of their candidates lag behind at the latter stages of the vote, Fine Gael can be confident that their vote 21.35% should still translate into one of the five seats.
In a similar way, it's hard to see where the transfers would come from to sustain Sinn Féin's bid to get three candidates elected.
Outside the main three parties, Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly has to be the story of the day. She has obtained 5,082 votes.
If Aontú can stay ahead as the count progresses, its possible Sarah O'Reilly can benefit from transfers from Independent Ireland's Shane P O'Reilly 3,074 first preferences. The Mullagh man could attract just 378 of his votes from Monaghan, whereas Sarah O'Reilly claimed 1,600 of those coming from County Monaghan.
Of the other runners Lester Gordon backed up his impressive bid for election to the council with another respectable attempt registering 918 votes. The Finea man is likely to benefit from some of the early eliminations of independents, as will Val Martin who is sitting on 1,237 votes for the Irish Freedom Party.