What promised to be an interesting day for Tuam’s Tom Reilly ended in disappointment when he was pipped at the post for the last seat in the Tuam electoral area count.
Earlier, FF’s Reilly had topped the poll in the Tuam Town Council election, and he was hoping to retain the dual mandate.
And for a long time, it was touch and go whether he would. He seemed very relaxed about it in mid-evening on Saturday.
The Tuam count got off to a flyer, although it took ages for a result to be announced. However tallies had indicated that three councillors would soar past the quota of 2,347 on the first count.
And so it was, with Sean Canney getting a whopping 3,273 in the new enlarged area even with Mary Hoade in his backyard. He was followed by Tom McHugh and Colm Keaveney, who were both delighted to be home and hosed so soon.
Early incomplete tallies had led to speculation that Hoade would struggle but these were discounted when it was pointed out that these did not include the boxes in her new base.
On the sixth count, Peter Roche edged past the line to take the fourth seat.
Peter Roche has been trying to win a seat on the council for over a decade now. The Abbeyknockmoy man had suffered several disappointing losses at convention level and election level, but Sunday was his day. Indeed, we could say that overall, he would be very pleased with poll results from elsewhere in the province as well.
Roche’s surplus on the next count transferred 251 votes to Tiarnan Walsh who went over the line, leaving FF’s Michael Connolly and Tom Reilly to battle it out for the last seat. Connolly had the edge entering that count and he maintained that lead by getting home by 177 votes, to take the last seat.
