Fianna Fáil recorded its strongest performance in the country in Carlow-Kilkenny, securing an impressive three of the five seats.

The party’s veteran John McGuinness topped the poll with 9,794 first preferences and just more than 14 per cent of the vote, to take the first seat. Then in the early hours of Monday morning, party colleague and first-time general election candidate Peter “Chap” Cleere took the third seat with the party’s Carlow-based candidate, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, retaining her seat in the Dáil by taking the fourth.

It was history in the making for Fine Gael’s Catherine Callaghan, who secured the second seat. She not only holds the distinction of being the party’s first female candidate on the ticket in Carlow-Kilkenny, but now its first female TD.

Carlow-based Callaghan polled an impressive 6,788 first preferences, placing her ahead of running mates David Fitzgerald and Michael Doyle, a lead retained throughout the count to secure Fine Gael’s single seat.

Sinn Féin’s two candidates, Natasha Newsome Drennan and Áine Gladney Knox, remained in the hunt for the final seats right to the end, with Carlow-based Gladney Knox initially ahead. However, with geography planning a huge factor, Kilkenny’s Newsome Drennan squeezed ahead of her running mate for the fifth and final seat.

Outgoing minister of state Green Party’s Malcolm Noonan lost out, to become another of the party’s casualties.