Craic On

Martin Farren

Martin Farren looks to be in a major dogfight to save his career as the tallies show him in 10th spot and there are only 9 council positions.

With just two boxes left to tally he has 824 votes when he hoped to get over 1100 in the first ballot.

The one just ahead of him is John Ryan with 852 votes and ahead of him in 8th is Ciaran McLaughlin with 936 votes.

It looks as if Martin is paying for Labour’s unpopularity nationally.

Transfers

However, it’s not all over yet with two boxes left to tally and transfer votes once all boxes have been tallied. The actual count doesn’t take place till tomorrow but the tallies are usually accurate.

His best chance appears to be to catch John Ryan who is Fine Gael.

Unfortunately, there are two fellow Fine Gael candidates likely to get knocked out and many of their votes are likely to transfer to John Ryan.

Mickey Doherty (FG) has 585 votes and Peter McLaughlin has 358 votes.

That’s a lot of potential transfer votes that John Ryan will probably get.

Mary McCauley

Unfortunately Mary McCauley has got only 447 votes and is likely to be knocked out.

Martin’s only chance appears to be if people in Moville and Greencastle have voted Mary first and Martin second so that he gets her transfer votes. However, they could go to other Fianna Fail candidates.

Perhaps Martin can catch Ciaran McLaughlin who is 112 votes ahead of him in 8th place. Ciaran is Sinn Fein and there are no other Sinn Fein candidates below him whose votes could transfer.

However, Sinn Fein candidates are in 2nd and 3rd places and their votes could transfer down when they go ‘over the top’.

Not Looking Good

It’s not looking good for Martin. It’s difficult to see how he can get that 9th spot.

Moville could be without a Councillor for the first time in ages. They used to have a TD AND a councillor.

It’s not all over though and we’ll keep you up to date when the other boxes are opened and the transfers take place.

It didn’t look good for Martin last time but he came with a late run to take a council seat. Maybe he can do it again.

Tallies

The tallies are:-

2025 – Martin McDermott (FF)

1310 – Jack Murray (SF)

1281 – Albert Doherty (SF)

1235 – Nicholas Crossan (No Party)

1183 – Bernard McGuinness (FG)

1095 – Rena Donaghy (FF)

995 – Paul Canning (FF)

936 – Ciaran McLaughlin (SF)

852 – John Ryan (FG)

824 – Martin Farren (L)

585 – Mickey Doherty (FG)

572 – Joe Murphy (PBP)

551 – Patrick McCarroll (NP)

447 – Mary McCauley (FF)

358 – Peter McLaughlin (FG)

292 – Ryan Steward (NP)

89 – Paul Ferguson (NP)

85 – Ellis Haden (DDI)