Aontú's O'Reilly dominates the Bailieborough tallies
Bailieborough Cootehill MD
With Bailieborough town home to no less than four candidates, it is a key urban battleground in the Municipal District.
Initial indications suggest Sarah O'Reilly of Aontú is set to continue her electoral dominance in the area, while Paddy McDonald of (SF), Niall Smith (FF) and Garry Cosgrove (Ind) would have been hoping for a greater number of first preferences from the area.
Tallies, which are unofficial counts by party members, have been completed for all seven boxes - each representing different parts of the town.
Sarah O'Reilly has 609 first preferences in the town, and emerged with the largest votes in six out of seven boxes.
The person who got more votes in the other box was Paddy McDonald who achieved 364 first preference votes. He is actually up by 31 first preferences on these same boxes in 2019. The SF stalwart then only got across the line upon the elimination of his then running mate Brigid Boyle; his fate in 2024 again looks set to depend upon the performance of his running mates.
Niall Smith, who is from nearby Knockbride but has lived in Bailieborough for more than 20 years has not fared as well as hoped by the Fianna Fáil team. The first time candidate has 293 first preferences in these town boxes.
Meanwhile Garry Cosgrove, who is from Cootehill but lives in Bailieborough achieved a respectable 127. The Independent first time runner's motivation to run stemmed from his involvement in the campaign against the refugee plan for the White Horse Hotel in Cootehill.
Taking a broader view overview of Bailieborough-Cootehill MD with 22% of boxes tallied - which is misleading given Cootehill and Kingscourt have not been tallied - Aontú Cllr Sarah O'Reilly is the clear leader on 31.3% of the vote.
The next closest is Paddy McDonald on 16.7%; Independent Garry Cosgrove has 6.4%; Independent Ireland's Kristofer Shekelton is on 5.4%; while Fine Gael's Carmel Brady is sitting on 4.5%. Sitting Fianna Fáil councillors Aiden Fitzpatrick and Clifford Kelly are on 2.5% and 1.9% respectively.
Sinn Féin's Stiofan Conaty is also sitting on 1.9%