On a day when seven potential nominees for the presidential election were due to address a special meeting of Mayo County Council just one of those potentials, Sarah Lousie Mulligan showed up to address the members.
But that did not stop Sean Gallagher getting the nomination from the council when the final vote of the day was taken.
The Cathaoirleach Cllr Kieran ‘Blackie’ Gavin and the council executive did confirm at the end of the meeting that a number of those who had looked to speak at the meeting did contact them over the weekend to say they could not make it.
Despite taking up her allocated ten minutes to tell the council about herself and her plans for the presidency Sarah Louise Mulligan failed to get the nomination from the councillors present.
Instead the nomination was given to Sean Gallagher who won a vote on the nomination by 12 votes to 10, with eight of the 30 elected members absent from the meeting.
Mr Gallagher was nominated by Fianna Fail Cllr Damien Ryan - with the nomination seconded by his party colleague Cllr Al McDonnell.
The nomination secured the backing of the nine Fianna Fail councillors in the chamber alongside votes from Independent councillors Gerry Ginty, Michael Holmes and Richard Finn.
The special meeting started off with Cathaoirleach Kieran ‘Blackie’ Gavin asking was any of the seven people listed on the agenda to speak in the council chamber.
There were none of the seven there at the time, but they were informed that Ms Mulligan was on her way into the chamber.
Mulligan then gave the councillors a ten minute presentation on her plans if she was elected President.
Following her presentation the first of a series of votes were taken after they were proposed from the floor.
The first of which was to adjourn the meeting and reconvene next Monday to allow those who had not spoked on the day be afforded the opportunity to address them then.
That proposal was put forward by Fianna Fail Cllr Damien Ryan and seconded by party colleague Cllr Al McDonnell. The vote was defeated 11-10 - but only after a rechecking of the votes after it being initially declared a tie and the casting vote falling to the Cathaoirelach to break the tie.
But on the recount of votes it was found that the vote had in fact been defeated.
The second vote of the day was proposed by Sinn Fein Cllr Joe McHale for the council to not nominate anybody for the presidential election, which was seconded by his party colleague Gerry Murray.
That vote was defeated 14-8, with the three Sinn Fein and three Fine Gael councillors in the chamber voting alongside independent councillors Michael Kilcoyne and Seamus Weir - but it was defeated by a combination of Fianna Fail and other independent councillors.
The third vote of the morning was to nominate Sarah Louise Mulligan which was proposed by independent Cllr Richard Finn and seconded by fellow independent Cllr Frank Durcan. That vote was defeated 16-3 with the Sinn Fein members abstaining from the vote.
The final vote of the day was to nominate Gallagher which passed by two votes.
