Wipeout for Greens as two Claires take seats in Edenderry

The Green success of 2019 which saw Offaly County Council elect its first-ever Green Party councillor came to a shuddering halt on Saturday last with Mark Hackett trailing second last from a field of ten candidates in the Edenderry area.

Hackett polled just 270 first preference votes compared with the 584 first preferences secured by his wife and now Minister for State, Pippa,on the party's first electoral outing in Offaly five years ago.

Despite securing 92 transfers from the distribution of Eddie Fitzpatrick's surplus votes (747) Mark Hackett was eliminated on the 4th count with 380 votes in what was a near wipeout for the party locally.

Having been co-opted onto Offaly County Council in 2019 when his wife became a Minister, the Green party activist and farmer described himself as “an accidental politician” and admitted that this is “the end of the road” for him on the local political scene.

Fergus McDonnell, who narrowly missed out on one of the six seats in the Edenderry area in 2019, when he ran as an Independent, more than made up for that disappointment by polling a hugely impressive 1,320 first preference votes and being elected on the 1st count – this time as a member of one of the country's newest political parties, Independent Ireland.

McDonnell received the second highest first preference vote in the Edenderry area, but he was still a long way behind poll-topper and current Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council, Fianna Fail's Eddie Fitzpatrick who had a 747 vote surplus after the first count where he secured 1,998 first preferences.

Fianna Fail fielded three candidates in the race, but it was a bad day for the party's outgoing councillor, Robert McDermott, who was left trailing in seventh place out of a field of ten candidates after the 1st count and he ultimately lost his seat to Sinn Fein's Claire Murray. He was also over 500 votes behind the party's first-time candidate, the second Claire Murray on the Edenderry ballot paper, who secured 1,134 first preference votes and was elected on the 2nd count.

One of the big surprises in Edenderry was the resurgence of Sinn Fáin, who swept into power across Offaly in 2014 by securing seats in each of the three electoral division only to lose all three again in 2019.

This time the party made no mistake, with their first-time candidate, Claire Murray, securing the final seat in a nail-biting finish which saw three candidates almost neck and neck for the final two seats. Just 16 votes separated Murray from Robert McDermott in the final shake-up and she was just 57 votes behind outgoing Fine Gael Cllr Noel Cribben, with both Cribben and Murray being elected without reaching the quota.

Cribbin faced an anxious wait in the Mucklagh Count Centre to see if he could hold onto his seat, having secured 891 first preferences while the second Fine Gael candidate and outgoing Cllr Liam Quinn securing 1,066 first preferences and was elected on the 5th count.

Social Democrats candidate John McNamee polled a respectable 617 first preferences and the distribution of his votes at the end of the 5th count decided the destination of the final two seats.

Cribbin was at 1,043 votes at the end of the 5th count, having attracted a steady stream of transfers in the preceding counts, including 51 transfers from Mark Hackett. McDermott, on the other hand was only on 867 votes, with the Sinn Fein candidate 55 votes ahead on 912.

Sinn Fein received 216 of McNamee's transfers and Cribbin received 142. Even though McDermott received 145 it wasn't enough to bring him ahead of the other two candidates and he lost out by just 16 votes to Claire Murray.

The Edenderry Local Electoral Area is now made up of two Fianna Fáil members Eddie Fitzpatrick and Claire Murray; two Fine Gael representatives Liam Quinn and Noel Cribbin; one Sinn Féin Claire Murray and one Independent Ireland member, Fergus McDonnell.