Euro snapshot- Cootehill Bailieborough
The tipped out election boxes in the Drumalee Leisure Complex paint a picture that is essentially local, but the success of Mairead McGuinness in attracting votes is readily apparent in a county that has its own European hopeful.
In 2014 nationally McGuinness had 14% of the first preferences after the first count with Luke Ming Flanagan commanding over 19%, while Matt Carthy (SF) 17% . This time out the script seems to have been flipped. Even if the exit poles are wildly out (they come with a 4% margin of error) there can be little doubt that Mairead McGuinness will command a large chunk of the first preferences.
As a case study the boxes from Cootehill Bailieboro provide for interesting reading, as it's on the border of Monaghan (Carthy's home turf) and Cavan (Smith's home patch). Thus you would expect them to strongly out perform their Fine Gael adversary.
However Mairead McGuinness ranks highly in most of the tallied boxes. For example in box one (St Anne's NS) Carthy secured 58 of the 242 votes Smith took 44 and McGuinness 40.
Here are six other boxes:
Box 2
Carthy 46
Smith 78
McGuinness 68
Box 4
Carthy 36
Smith 49
McGuinness 38
Box 5
Carthy 48
Smith 87
McGuinness 71
Box 6
Carthy 45
Smith 60
McGuinness 41
Box 7
Carthy43
Smith 64
McGuinness 34
Box 8
Carthy14
Smith 61
McGuinness 90
Keep up to date with our election blog throughout the weekend:
https://www.anglocelt.ie/elections/roundup/articles/2019/05/24/4174595-live-election-blog-2019/