Aontú’s O’Reilly vows to be back
Aontú’s Sarah O’Reilly was in with a fighting chance of winning a seat in the 34th Dáil after coming out on top in her hometown of Bailieborough and scooping up votes across the constituency.
In a battle for the final two seats, it came down to just O’Reilly, Fianna Fáil’s Niamh Smyth and Brendan Smith on Monday evening. On the 14th count, after the distribution of Cllr Cathy Bennett’s surplus of 1841, it wasn’t meant to be for the Bailieborough native when she was eliminated on 10,067 votes. She amassed an impressive 5,148 first preference votes this time around, which was 1300 more that last time out when she was eliminated on 5,745 votes on the ninth count.
In a statement released to the press after the election, Cllr O'Reilly vowed she will be back for a seat in the next General Election, adding her performance “sets a marker for future election successes".
Speaking to the Celt in the count centre, she praised constituents who trusted her with their first preference vote.
“You never think that over 5,000 people are going to get into their cars, drive to a polling station and give you their number ones.
“So, it’s absolutely fantastic; it’s very humbling and I am so very grateful for every single vote I get. It’s a lovely feeling that 5,000 people trusted me with their vote and it’s very much appreciated."
Initially in the race, it was between herself and Smyth for the majority in their respective hometown of Bailieborough and surrounding areas, however O’Reilly came out on top with tally figures showing 657 votes to 489 in ballot boxes.
Cllr O'Reilly quickly emerged as the dark house of this election race when she made major gains in the sixth and seventh counts after the distribution of votes from non-party candidate Lester Gordon, who campaigned against “wreckless migration” and Irish Freedom Party’s Val Martin, who ran on a similar stance.
She also gained from the distribution of Emma Hendrick’s vote, who ran an online campaign from Sligo under the People Before Profit banner and never materialised over the weekend. The far-left party vote may have transferred on a female preference basis. She continued to prove transfer friendly throughout the election and was among the runners for the final seat in the constituency. Unfortunately for the Aontú candidate, she was tripped at the final hurdle just 819 votes away from a seat.
“This is not a loss really, it’s massive endorsement for Aontú.”
She put her successes down to “true grit and passion" and thanked her team of canvassers.
“We conducted a clean, professional, compassionate and decent campaign on an absolute shoestring. It was a true team effort, and I can’t thank them enough. What we didn’t have in terms of the huge sums of money all the other parties had in funding, we more than made up with true grit and passion.”
Nationally the pro-life party filled two seats; party leader Peadar Tóibín in the Meath East constituency and Mayo candidate Paul Lawless, who was unsuccessful last time out.
“I accept the will of the people but I will be watching to see if the promises made by my fellow candidates across this area who were elected will come good on the promises they made and if not, I will hold them to account, make no mistake about that,” Cllr O’Reilly vowed.
“I know I have a solid base of voters, and I am going to continue to build on that and grow it through my work as a councillor. What we have achieved in just five years is nothing short of remarkable”.
Graceful in defeat, she added: “To the people who were elected in my area, I do wish them well, politics is not easy, and we need to remember they are human beings.”