Maxwell holds seat for Fine Gael but Cavan reps miss out

Running three candidates in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency, Fine Gael managed to retain its seat here when Monaghan Cllr David Maxwell took the first Dáil seat in a contest that took three days to complete.

The seat had been vacated by Minister Heather Humphreys just eight weeks previous and was one she had held in this constituency since 2011.

The party vote dropped locally - down from 26.6% (19,233 first preferences) in 2020 to 21.15% (14,786) in 2024. Although it should be noted that the demographics were somewhat changed - part of Meath having returned to Meath west, the population having increased and the turn-out marginally down.

Cllr Maxwell was joined on the ballot paper by Cavan Cathaoirleach, Cllr T.P. O’Reilly in Virginia, who was also selected at convention, and Cllr Carmel Brady from Cootehill, who was added to the ticket by party HQ.

A three-candidate strategy for what turned out to be just one seat was perhaps, in hindsight, not the best move. It certainly split the party vote in County Cavan leaving both Breffni candidates with an uphill battle from the get go.

Cllr Maxwell secured 6,199 first preference votes; while Cllr O’Reilly got 4,328 and Cllr Brady, 4,259. For much of the count, the Cavan contingent were neck and neck; while Cllr Maxwell shot ahead on 6,525 votes. By the time Cllr Brady was eliminated in the seventh count on 4,519 votes, Cllr O’Reilly was just about hanging in with 5,118 votes.

However, following the eighth count, Cllr O’Reilly was eliminated on 6,487 votes having gained 1,307 during Brady’s distribution. It brought to an end his second run at General Election success in the Cavan-Monaghan Constituency.

Interestingly transfers went everywhere and anywhere, and certainly while party allegiance was to the fore at times, more evident was geography, gender and religion. Cllr Maxwell alluded to this when speaking to The Anglo-Celt during proceedings over the weekend: "Neither the Fianna Fáil party, the Sinn Féin party nor the Fine Gael party know how they are going to call it.”

Also, the coming together of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to form the grand coalition government in 2020 played out in the electoral system this time out as the parties appeared to transfer to one another more seamlessly than in prehaps previous General Elections.

Looking at the figures, 57% of Cllr Brady’s votes, for example, came back to Fine Gael; 1,307 went to Cllr O’Reilly and 1,270 to Cllr Maxwell. Outside of that, Deputy Pauline Tully (SF) was the biggest single beneficiary adding 1,097 to her tally; followed by Deputy Niamh Smyth (FF), 524; Aontu’s Sarah O’Reilly, 365; Deputy Brendan Smith (FF), 358; Robbie Gallagher (FF) 241 and 163 to Sinn Féin’s Deputy Matt Carthy.

But it was the distribution of Fianna Fáil’s Robbie Gallagher’s 6,857 votes that proved to be the game changer for Fine Gael and its Monaghan candidate David Maxwell. It pushed him over quota (11,542), bringing his total vote to 12,353 and provided a surplus of 508, which was subsequently distributed between the remaining candidates. Once again, geography, party allegiance and the often seen Republican swing between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin were to the fore in these transfers.

Cllr Maxwell showed a quiet confidence in his ability to retain that much-coveted Monaghan Fine Gael seat from the get go.

He told the Celt that, once he made his decision to run, he did the figures and knew there were 6,000-7,000 votes available to him. “I knew that was achievable but that those votes wouldn’t just come to me, I had to get out and work for them; they weren’t just going to come to me,” he added.

“We ran three candidates in the hope that we might get the two seats but those seats weren’t there and the fight became about holding the one seat.

“I had a team around me and I had the Fine Gael members' network in Co Monaghan, and I have to say that, only for them, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you today in top position. I owe everything to them."

And, Cllr Carmel Brady pointed to how the party did “hold its position” in the initial stages of the count. She said she had been well received at the doors while out canvassing.

“The communities we were in made reference to all the money that was made available to them over the last five years,” she remarked.

Cllr Brady had great support in her native Cootehill. She secured half of the total vote in Cootehill on polling day (according to tally figures).

She added: “The electoral area has been very good to me and I can’t thank the people enough for voting for me.”