The tally numbers on Sunday morning made for interesting reading as they came in - the swell of support for Sinn Féin's Rose Conway-Walsh was clear to see from early on when the Castlebar boxes were opened. The tallies divided the county in six different areas for the sake of the counting, Castlebar, Ballina, Westport, Belmullet, Claremorris and Swinford.
Conway-Walsh was flying high from early on and finished in third place in Castlebar, according to the tally. The tallies gave the Castlebar area to Alan Dillon with just over 20.28 per cent of the vote, Conway-Walsh was hot on his heels with 19.94 per cent, next came Michael Ring with 18.87 and then in fourth place was Fianna Fáil's outgoing TD, Lisa Chambers, with 17.03 per cent - finishing in fourth place in this area dealt a massive blow to Chambers and her chances of holding onto a seat.
The four TDs elected all won their home areas, according to the tallies, with Dillon taking Castlebar, Dara Calleary the Ballina boxes, Rose Conway-Walsh the Belmullet tallies and Michael Ring claiming the Westport vote; both Ring and Conway-Walsh also took another area each, with Ring winning in Claremorris and Conway-Walsh in Swinford.
Conway-Walsh didn't finish outside the top three in any of the six areas, along with winning the aforementioned two she finished in second place in Claremorris, Westport and Castlebar and third in Ballina. While Michael Ring came home in second place in Belmullet, third place in Castlebar and Swinford and in fourth spot in Ballina, he also took the single biggest percentage in an area, winning 48.72 per cent of the votes in Westport, with Conway-Walsh taking 44.02 per cent in Belmullet and Calleary claiming 40.12 per cent in Ballina.
Calleary won in Ballina, finished in second place in Swinford, third place in Belmullet, fourth in Claremorris, fifth in Westport and sixth in Castlear; apart from winning Castlebar, Alan Dillon didn't finish inside the top two in any of the other five areas, coming home in sixth place in Ballina, Belmullet and Westport and in fifth spot in Swinford and Claremorris.
Ballina
Calleary: 5,212 (40.12% ); Mulherin: 3,176 (24.45% ); Conway-Walsh: 2,619 (20.16% ); Ring: 638 (4.91% ); McHugh: 567 (4.36% ); Dillon: 143 (1.1% ); Chambers: 113 (0.87% ). Others: 4.03%
Belmullet
Conway-Walsh: 3,269 (44.02% ); Ring: 1,859 (25.03% ); Calleary: 694 (9.35% ); Chambers: 682 (9.18% ); McHugh: 440 (5.93% ); Dillon: 192 (2.59% ); Mulherin: 65 (0.88% ) Others: 3.1%
Castlebar
Dillon: 3,145 (20.28% ); Conway-Walsh: 3,093 (19.94% ); Ring: 2,927 (18.87 ); Chambers: 2,642 (17.03% ); McHugh: 1,079 (6.96% ); Calleary: 521 (3.36% ); Mulherin: 532 (3.43% ) Others: 10.1%
Claremorris
Ring: 3,376 (33.03% ); Conway-Walsh: 1,603 (15.68% ); Chambers:1,271 (12.43% ); Calleary: 860 (8.41% ); Dillon: 846 (8.28% ); McHugh: 576 (5.63% ) Mulherin: 483 (4.7% ). Others: 11.8%
Swinford
Conway-Walsh: 2,275 (26.61% ); Calleary: 1,525 (17.83% ); Ring: 1,274 (14.9% ); Mulherin: 1,057 (12.36% ); Dillon: 559 (6.54% ); Chambers: 556 (6.5% ); McHugh: 467 (5.46% ) Others: 9.8%
Westport
Ring: 4,449 (48.72% ); Conway-Walsh: 1,604 (17.57% ); Chambers: 1,088 (11.92% ); McHugh: 935 (10.24% ); Calleary: 256 (2.8% ); Dillon: 233 (2.55% ); Mulherin: 81 (0.89% ) Others: 5.3%
*All figures are based on tally numbers
