Dublin and Cork are set to have women Fine Gael lord mayors following elections by their city councils tonight.
Pacts between Fine Gael and Labour, made after the local elections last year, mean Fine Gael will take the top council position in both cities.
Catherine Byrne looks set to become the first female Fine Gael mayor of Dublin tonight, while Barry's Tea heiress Deirdre Clune has been chosen as mayor of Cork.
Cllr Byrne, from Inchicore, will be the first Fine Gael mayor of Dublin since the election of Joe Doyle in 1998.
The party had effectively been excluded from the council's top elected position since then by a Fianna Fáil/Labour voting bloc. However, Fianna Fáil's poor showing in the local elections led to a new pact last year.
The new voting bloc, known as the Democratic Alliance, is supported by the lone Progressive Democrat and Green Party councillors, and should ensure that Fine Gael and Labour hold power in the council for the next four years.
In Cork former TD Cllr Clune is to follow in the footsteps of her father, Peter Barry, lord mayor of Cork in 1970-71, and her late grandfather, Anthony Barry, lord mayor in 1960-61.
Cllr Clune, who was chosen by the Cork Fine Gael and Labour parties shortly after last year's elections, is an advocate of direct popular vote for lord mayor. She said direct mayoral elections should be open to anyone running for the city council, and the election of the lord mayor by all the citizens of Cork should be held on the same day as the local elections.
Another Fine Gael/Labour pact is set to deliver a Labour mayor in Limerick tonight. Labour candidate Joe Leddin is the favourite to to be elected. Since the local election Labour have four seats, with Fine Gael holding five, on the 17-seat Limerick City Council. The remaining eight are held by two Fianna Fáil members and six Independents.
The same pact returned Fine Gael and Labour mayors in Galway and Kilkenny last Monday. Fine Gael's Brian Walsh was elected mayor of Galway city while Labour councillor Marie Fitzpatrick was chosen for Kilkenny.
While most county and town councils do not hold their mayoral elections until tonight, only one local authority has yet to elect a mayor not from Labour or Fine Gael. Monaghan town council chose Sinn Féin councillor Pat Treanor as mayor last week.
The new council coalitions will prove the viability of a Fine Gael/ Labour government in the next general elections, Cllr Byrne said. "We're working now towards something for the general elections so people have an alternative when the time comes."
