Five candidates elected in Cavan-Monaghan

No change in the party split - 2 SF, 2 FF, 1FG

After more than 40 hours of counting and 14 counts, all five seats have been filled in Cavan and Monaghan.

While there's no change in the party split - 2 SF, 2 FF, 1FG - there have been quite a few twists and turns along the way and a few new faces will represent the constituency in Dáil Éireann.

It was a bitter sweet election for Sinn Féin. As expected, poll topper Matt Carthy claimed the first seat for Sinn Féin on the 12th count. While the party polled well, taking almost one in three first preferences, the strong showing by Monaghan Cllr Cathy Bennett resulted in Cavan's Pauline Tully losing her Dáil seat.

With outgoing Minister Heather Humphreys (FG) leaving the field wide open, each of the three main parties fielded three candidates each.

While Monaghan's David Maxwell managed to hold the seat vacated by Minister Humphreys, the strategy resulted in the vote being too evenly split on the Cavan side with neither Cllrs T.P. O'Reilly nor Carmel Brady even really threatening to take a seat.

Perhaps the biggest story of the election has been the battle of Bailieborough between outgoing TD Niamh Smyth and Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly with both Bailieborough based candidates in a dog fight in the latter stages of the count for that final seat.

After a number of counts and some leap frogging, Smyth picked up a significant transfer from running mate Robbie Gallagher boxing out O'Reilly for the last seat. She later failed to take enough of Tully’s transfers to keep her in contention.

Eventually both Deputy Niamh Smyth and Deputy Brendan Smith went on to hold their seats for Fianna Fáil; with Cathy Bennett also returned for Sinn Féin after the distribution of Maxwell's surplus.

Full a detailed analysis, tallies, reaction and colour, see this week's print issue of the Celt or check out our election blog.