The tricolour was held high in the Ruby Room of the TF Royal Theatre on Sunday after the last Belmullet electoral area seat was taken by Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway Walsh. This resulted in the loss of outgoing Fianna Fáil councillor Tim Quinn’s seat. He topped the polls in 2004 with first preference votes, while against the county trend Fine Gael failed to secure the three seats which it was contending.
Six counts filled the Belmullet electoral area seats, with the Sinn Féin candidate taking the last seat with 1,852 votes, bringing multi-party representation to the area with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Independent also taking seats.
Independents John Corrigan and James Padden were eliminated after the first count with a low ranking of 215 and 176 votes respectively. The first person to be elected was on the third count when Fianna Fáil’s Micheal McNamara was secure in taking a seat with 1,889 votes. The Fianna Fáil councillor led with first preference votes having received 1,503, but went over the quota when he gained 341 votes following the elimination of Fine Gael’s Pat Kilbane.
After the fourth count Fine Gael’s Ian McAndrew was eliminated with 1,115 votes. Five hundred and fifty three of the distribution of his votes brought party colleague Gerry Coyle to 2,182 and also McAndrew’s votes helped Independent Michael Holmes to gain a seat, finishing with 1,847 votes.
Two candidates remained for the last seat, Tim Quinn and Rose Conway Walsh, however the gulf was too wide for Quinn to catch up with Conway Walsh, who received 1,368 first preference votes in comparison with Quinn’s 1,130. Conway Walsh secured a total of 484 transfer votes leaving her with 1,852 votes and was elected.
Out of 9,177 votes, 121 votes were invalid and the quota for election was 1,812 votes.
Belmullet Electoral Area
Michael Holmes Ind
Rose Conway-Walsh SF
Micheal McNamara FF
Gerry Coyle FG
FG-1, FF-1, SF-1, Ind-1
Belmullet Electoral Area
Total poll: 9,177
Valid poll: 9,056
Quota: 1,812
Number of seats: 4
COUNT ONE
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,368
Corrigan John Ind 215
Coyle Gerry FG 1,385
Holmes Michael Ind 1,412
Kilbane Pat FG 905
McAndrew Ian FG 962
McNamara Micheal FF 1,503
Padden James FF 1,130
No one elected. James Padden and John Corrigan eliminated. Their votes distributed.
COUNT TWO
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,465 (+97 )
Coyle Gerry FG 1,408 (+23 )
Holmes Michael Ind 1,493 (+81 )
Kilbane Pat FG 947 (+42 )
McAndrew Ian FG 982 (+20 )
McNamara Micheal FF 1,575 (+72 )
Quinn Tim FF 1,164 (+34 )
No one elected. Pat Kilbane eliminated. His votes distributed.
COUNT THREE
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,519 (+54 )
Coyle Gerry FG 1,638 (+230 )
Holmes Michael Ind 1,668 (+175 )
McAndrew Ian FG 1,100 (+128 )
McNamara Micheal FF 1,889 (+341 )
Quinn Tim FF 1,166 (+2 )
Micheal McNamara elected. McNamara’s surplus to be distributed next count.
COUNT FOUR
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,534 (+15 )
Coyle Gerry FG 1,649 (+11 )
Holmes Michael Ind 1,711 (+43 )
McAndrew Ian FG 1,115 (+5 )
Quinn Tim FF 1,169 (+3 )
No one elected. Ian McAndrew’s votes distributed.
COUNT FIVE
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,727 (+193 )
Coyle Gerry FG 2,182 (+553 )
Holmes Michael Ind 1,847 (+136 )
Quinn Tim FF 1,307 (+138 )
Gerry Coyle and Michael Holmes elected. Coyle’s surplus distributed.
COUNT SIX
Conway Walsh Rose SF 1,852 (+125 )
Quinn Tim FF 1,417 (+110 )
Rose Conway Walsh elected. Tim Quinn elminated.
