CLONTARF-BASED councillor Eibhlin Byrne was last night appointed the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the first Fianna Fáil councillor to hold the position since Royston Brady in 2003.
Fianna Fáil had been locked out of the mayoralty for the past four years by a Fine Gael-Labour voting pact. However, the agreement collapsed in 2006 after former Fine Gael councillor Niamh Cosgrave voted for the Fianna Fáil nominee, Independent councillor Vincent Jackson.
Labour has now formed a voting pact with Fianna Fáil which has resulted in the election of Ms Byrne with the support of 29 of the 52-member council.
Fine Gael's candidate, Mary O'Shea, gained 11 votes, while Sinn Féin's nominee, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, got 10 votes. The lone Progressive Democrats councillor, John Kenny, voted for Ms O'Shea.
Eibhlin Byrne is the 339th Lord Mayor of Dublin and the sixth woman to hold the position. She is also likely to be the last appointed Fianna Fáil mayor as the position will revert to Labour before the mayoralty becomes a directly-elected position.
Ms Byrne has been a member of Dublin City Council since 2003.
A former secondary school teacher, she currently works with the homeless charity, the Depaul trust. She said she would focus on the development of the city's business community, on the provision of social services and on tackling anti-social behaviour.
In Waterford, Labour Party councillor Jack Walsh was last night elected Mayor. A council member since 2004, he is vice-chairman of the local authority's joint policing committee and chairperson of the housing committee.
Another Labour councillor, Ted Howlin, was unanimously elected Mayor of Wexford last night. Mr Howlin, who previously held the office in 1995 and 2000, is a brother of Leas Ceann Comhairle and Brendan Howlin.
Councillor Madeleine Taylor Quinn was elected Mayor of Clare County Council yesterday. She is the first Fine Gael chairman of the council.
