"It's like old times, but even more exciting," was how former European commissioner Pádraig Flynn put it after his daughter Beverley retained her Dáil seat, having been elected on the eighth count without reaching the quota.
Fine Gael's Enda Kenny topped the poll and was elected on the first count. He was followed by party colleagues Michael Ring on the second count and John O'Mahony on the eighth.
Expressing delight with the outcome, Kenny told reporters it was the first occasion in any constituency where a party had taken the first three seats.
A surprising casualty was Independent Dr Jerry Cowley, who was unseated by what he described as the "blue factor", a rising tide of local support for Kenny in the hopes that he would become taoiseach.
Cowley was down some 5,000 votes on 2002, which proved catastrophic for his re-election chances. Despite his championing of the Shell to Sea protest campaign against the proposed Corrib gas terminal, Cowley got only 71 votes in the Rossport polling station, where opposition to the terminal and pipeline is most vehement.
The rise of O'Mahony and Fianna Fáil's Dara Calleary, and the loss of Fianna Fáil TD John Carty's seat, were other talking points. O'Mahony, the Mayo football manager, confounded early opinion polls by taking a third Fine Gael seat, while Calleary polled exceptionally well, especially in his native Ballina.
Overall change: Independent loss, FG gain
Outgoing TDs
John Carty FF
Enda Kenny FG
Michael Ring FG
Jerry Cowley Ind
Beverley Flynn Ind