BIG WINS:FINE GAEL'S breakthrough has been marked by spectacular results in key constituencies. If it was to become the dominant party and bring its seat total to the previous high water mark of 70 in 1982 or higher, it had to win three seats and wrest control from Fianna Fáil in five-seat constituencies.
The party’s top performance occurred in leader Enda Kenny’s Mayo constituency, where it won a record four seats out of five, the first time this has been achieved in any constituency. Before a boundary revision in 1997, Fianna Fáil dominated Mayo, winning two seats out of three in Mayo East and Mayo West.
Fine Gael won three seats out of five in 1997; fell to two seats (including Mr Kenny) in 2002 and won a third seat in 2007, after Mr Kenny persuaded Mayo football manager John O’Mahony to stand.
With some vote management, in addition to Mr Kenny’s huge surplus, Ballina-based Michelle Mulherin was elected. The party enjoyed 65 per cent of vote share, with the once-dominant Fianna Fáil being reduced to 16 per cent.
Fine Gael also engineered a big gain in Cavan-Monaghan. Its sole outgoing TD Seymour Crawford retired, and the party’s vote management was very disciplined.
Three new candidates, Seán Conlon from Ballybay, Co Monaghan, Cavan-based Joe O’Reilly and Heather Humphreys from Newbliss, Co Monaghan were clustered together at 8,000 votes, ensuring that all were elected. Conversely, Fianna Fáil, which had three seats, was reduced to one.
A similar arrangement was followed in Wicklow with a good geographical spread allowing its three candidates to finish within close proximity of each other. Simon Harris from Greystones looked set to join sitting TDs Billy Timmins and Andrew Doyle in the 31st Dáil.
It gained two seats in Carlow-Kilkenny with John Paul Phelan and Carlow-based Pat Deering joining sitting TD Phil Hogan.
Vote management backfired in a number of constituencies for sitting TDs. In Wexford, Michael D’Arcy lost out, as did Deirdre Clune in Cork South Central as Fine Gael looked to increase representation from two seats to three. Tom Sheahan in Kerry South was another victim of this strategy, losing out to his running mate Brendan Griffin. Dublin South was another big success for the party, with it returning three TDs for the first time since the 1980s. And this was against a background where Shane Ross, close to the party ideologically, was also standing.
Some of Fine Gael’s strongest gains were in smaller constituencies, where it made one or two gains. They included both Meath constituencies, Dún Laoghaire and unexpectedly Dublin North, where it made gains with good vote management. Perhaps the biggest success story was Dublin Mid West, where it went from having no seats to winning two – Frances Fitzgerald and Derek Keating.
