Recap of a busy day at the Local Election count in Offaly as counting suspended for the day

Counting has been suspended at the Offaly Local Election count in Mucklagh after a very bust day that saw the majority of the seats filled. 

Counting was completed in the Tullamore and Edenderry Areas but was suspended in the Birr Area after a package of votes was found in the wrong spot. That issue will be dealt with when counting begins again at 10.30am on Monday.

There were a number of stories on the day including the superb vote management by Fianna Fail in Tullamore, the number of first time candidates elected and the fact that two candidates with the same name and from the same town were elected to Offaly County Council. 

Starting in Tullamore, Fianna Fail retained its four seats with an impressive feat of old school vote management. All four, Frank Moran, Tony McCormack, Declan Harvey and Ollie Bryant all finishing within 100 votes of each other. 

Ollie Bryant was one of two first time candidates elected in the Tullamore Area along with Sinn Fein's Aoife Masterson who was elected on count four after getting a very impressive 1,216 first prefernce votes. 

Neil Feighery topped the poll for Fine Gael but incredibly he was the only candidate from the party on the ballot paper. 

Rounding out the seven elected representatives for the Tullamore Area was veteran Independent Sean O'Brien.

The Edenderry Electoral Area will be represented by two Claire Murray who both will be first time councillors. 

Fianna Fail's Claire Murray was elected on the second count while Sinn Fein's Claire Murray held strong to oust veteran Fianna Fail councillor Robert McDermott. 

Fianna Fail will have two councillors from the Edenderry Area as poll topped Eddie Fitzpatrick joins Claire Murray in the council chamber. 

After missing out in 2019, Fergus McDonnell made and amazing comeback by getting elected on the first count and the representatives from Edenderry are rounded out by the Fine Gael duo of Liam Quinn and Noel Cribbin.

Only two councillors have been elected in the Birr Area after five counts and it will likely take many more counts to sort out a very tight race. Peter Ormond and John Leahy were elected on the first count and John Clendenen was just five votes short when voting was suspended at around 11pm. 

Garret Kelly, Ekaterina Koneva, Aubrey Claffey and Michael Deegan have all been eliminated leaving nine candidates fighting for the final four seats. 

Martin Buckley and Mike Boylan look like they have too much ground to make up and Jonathan O'Meara and Claire Claffey could be in the same boat although they are in slightly stronger positions and there are a lot of votes to be transferred.

The most likely scenario when it comes down to the business end of the count tomorrow is that Sean Maher (SF) and the Fianna Fail duo of Audrey Hennessy Kennedy and Barbara Daly will fight it out for the last two seats. This is how it stands as of Count 5 with a Quota of 1,712

Peter Ormond – FF – 1,943 (e)

John Leahy – Ind - 1,815 (e)

John Clendennen – FG – 1,677 +30 Total: 1,707

Hugh Egan – FG – 1,185 + 11 Total: 1,196

Sean Maher – SF – 957 +25 Total: 982

Audrey Hennessy Kennedy– FF – 923 +17 Total: 940

Barbara Daly – FF – 905 +11 Total: 916

Claire Claffey – SD - 624 +75 Total: 699

Jonathan O'Meara – 577 +45 Total: 622

Mike Boylan – Ind – 499 +49 Total: 548

Martin Buckley – Ind – 444 +15 Total: 459

Michael Deegan – Ind – 403 +23 Total: 426

Aubrey Claffey – Aontu – 198 +1 Total: 199

Ekaterina Koneva – GP –148 +5 Total: 153

Garret Kelly – Ind – 76