Where did the Fine Gael vote go?
What happened to Heather Humphreys' 12,808 first preferences from 2020?
The Fine Gael vote this election collapsed by more than 30 per cent compared to 2020, according to tally figures.
Compared to 2020 (21,454), tallies appear to show Fine Gael getting a combined 14,721 first preferences across their three candidates.
It is accepted they were dealt a definite blow this time round when Deputy Leader of Fine Gael and former Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, announced unexpectedly that she was to retire.
Did her late exit impact her party's result? Did the 'Harris hump' fall flat? Was it right for HQ to add a third name to the ticket after convention decided? Either way, questions will be asked in the wake of this election on how Fine Gael can reinvigorate support in future.
Of particular concern will be where Heather Humphreys' 12,808 first preferences from 2020 went. She got 3,735 votes in Cavan and over 8660 five years ago.
But her late exit certainly left the party scrambling.
Her running mate in 2020 was TP O'Reilly who picked up 7,345 votes of his own. This time out tallies indicate he got 4,332, much less, and most likely caused by the emergence of Independent Ireland's Shane P O'Reilly from Mullagh, amongst others.
The Ballyjamesduff MD returned 2,567 votes for TP O'Reilly in 2020, but SP O'Reilly topped the poll there with room to spare in June's local elections, while the Fine Gael'er edged in without reaching quota.
The third of the three candidates run by Fine Gael in 2020 was Sandra McIntyre from West Cavan who got 1,301 first preferences. No party ran a candidate further west than Cavan Town in 2024, with a quarter of the 20 candidates (five) located in the East of the constituency- Val Martin in Kingscourt, Sarah O'Reilly and Niamh Smyth in Bailieborough, TP O'Reilly in Virginia and Shane P O'Reilly in Mullagh.
David Maxwell was selected at convention after TP O'Reilly was anointed as the Fine Gael candidate at their convention in the Hotel Kilmore.
Tallies show he received over 6,100 votes total, with the vast majority of those coming from the Farney county, and less than a tenth from Cavan. He currently sits sixth overall, having being nudged out of the top five places by Brendan Smith and Pauline Tully after boxes from Cavan Town and West Cavan were opened.
The last of the three is Carmel Brady, added to the ticket by HQ and considered by many to be a protege of the retiring Heather Humphreys.
She achieved the second highest local vote for a Fine Gael candidate in June, and in this General Election appears to have come away with 4,260.
From the seven booths at St Michael's NS, which include Cootehill town, Cohaw and Tonaghbane, the tallies indicate there were 1,601 votes cast.
FOLLOW: Our live election blog HERE