The 2019 Local Elections in Westmeath produced their own share of surprises, and the biggest change in representation came as part of a national swing towards the Green Party, which succeeded at the first attempt in gaining two Westmeath Council seats, as candidates, Hazel Smyth in Mullingar electoral area and Louise Heavin in Athlone area took the final seats available.
However, veteran Mullingar Councillor Mick Dollard caused just as big a surprise, as he gained the highest first preference vote in Mullingar Electoral Area, and was the first new Councillor elected, running on an Independent ticket. Cllr. Dollard, who had been a poll topper for Labour for almost three decades, departed from Labour several years ago, after policy and personal disagreements, showed that it is his personal workrate, as a local politician, which makes the difference. He had lost ground in the 2014 elections, as a Labour candidate but on Friday, rather than losing ground, he gained more than 330 votes, exceeding the quota in Mullingar with 1,286 first preferences. It was for him, a personal triumph.
From the overall viewpoint, of the nineteen outgoing Westmeath candidates who sought re-election, fourteen were successful, while five lost out on this occasion, and in terms of party representation, Fianna Fáil produced the best result, re-electing 7 of their 8 outgoing Council members, and gaining 9 seats this time, one more than in 2014, as new candidate Aoife Davitt took the third FF seat in Mullingar area, and Vinny McCormack replaced Brian Crum in the Moate area. Ironically, Vinny McCormack had lost out narrowly in 2014 to Michael O’Brien (Ind), but this time, it was the outgoing Independent who lost out, in the new Moate electoral area, having also run in the new Athlone area – caught between the two new areas, in effect.
The Fine Gael party held its own, retaining five Council seats. Its candidates headed the poll in Kinnegad and Moate Areas, but they were disappointed at seeing new candidate Gerry Heery, who got a very respectable 723 first preferences in Mullingar Area, outrun by the Green Party’s Hazel Smyth over the final three hurdles for the last seat.
With two seats after big 2014 losses, the Labour Party will be happy with regaining two seats on the Council, as Denis Leonard (in Kinnegad area) regained the seat he lost five years ago and Johnnie Penrose polled very well to get a seat in the new Moate Area.
As the Green Party made gains, Sinn Féin lost ground further. It had seen three candidates elected to the County Council in 2014, but had already suffered the loss of two of these, as first Paul Hogan (in Athlone) and then more recently Una D’Arcy in north Westmeath left the party and ran as Independents on Friday. Their remaining Council member Sorca Clarke appeared to have a good chance of re-election in Mullingar, and the party also ran three new candidates in the Athlone, Kinnegad and Moate areas, Padraig Hegarty, Hazel Behan and Peter Judge respectively. However, a national swing against Sinn Féin saw them lose about 5% of their support which was reflected in the Westmeath boxes, with Sorca Clarke and her three party candidates not receiving enough support to gain election.
In Athlone area, Jamie Moran, the 21-years-old son of Kevin “Boxer” Moran, TD, is the second Independent member of the new Council.
HOW THEY WON….
AND LOST
To suggest that preference votes don’t count for much was fully given the lie in this year’s counts. It was preference votes which brought the swing to the Green Party and elected their two Westmeath candidates.
In Mullingar Area, with a quota of 1, 215 votes, after the first count it looked as if Fine Gael’s Gerry Heery was the most likely to take the sixth seat, with 723 first preferences, just 65 votes behind his running mate, Andrew Duncan, and well ahead of Hazel Smyth (GP) on 581 votes, Sean Lynch (Ind) on 531 votes, Sorca Clarke (SF) on 511 and the other four lower-placed candidates, Mark Scally and Margaret Lynam Sweeney (both Lab.), Chris Murtagh (Ind.), and Seamus Burke (AON). As candidates were eliminated, the transfers from the second to the seventh counts left Gerry Heery on 786 votes, while Hazel Smyth had 105 less, on 681. Then however, the transfer from Mark Scally reduced the margin and Sorca Clarke’s transfer of 107 votes, while giving Gerry Heery just 22, left him trailing by 7 votes, and the final elimination of Sean Lynch, and transfer of his 742 votes, saw Hazel Smyth gain 159, while Gerry Heery got 102, to leave Hazel Smyth a surprised winner. Elected on the tenth count were Aoife Davitt (1,120), Bill Collentine (1,106), Andrew Duncan (1,078), Hazel Smyth (1,019), while unlucky Gerry Heery on 955 was 64 votes off the mark.
KINNEGAD
In the Kinnegad area, with a quota of 1,371, the five highest first-count candidates, Frank McDermott (FG) 1,246; John Shaw (FF) 1,216; Paddy Hill (FF) 1,020, Denis Leonard (Lab.) 989; and Emily Wallace (FG) 914, emerged as the winners, too far ahead of Shauna Coyne (FF) 691; Hazel Behan (SF) 629, Lorraine Scally (Lab.) 582 and Una D’Arcy (Ind.) 492; Paddy Boyhan (Ind) 262 and Becky Loftus Dore (FG) 179, for anyone to get within reach.
When Shauna Coyne was eliminated on the sixth count, she transferred 199 votes to John Shaw (1,521), 163 to Emily Wallace (1,285), 131 to Paddy Hill (1,434) and 123 to Denis Leonard (1,314), to end the contest, with a very happy Frank McDermott elected on the fourth count.
MOATE
In Moate area, the quota was 1,696, and Tom Farrell of Fine Gael headed the first preferences on 1,567, followed by Liam McDaniel (FF) on 1,329; Vinny McComack (FF) on 1,329 and Johnnie Penrose (Lab) on 1,262, nearly 200 votes clear of Michael O’Brien (Ind.) on 1,073, with the outgoing Brian Crum (FF) next on 852 votes. With just 4 seats, it was clear that outgoing Michael O’Brien and Brian Crum were in trouble, and so it proved, as the elimination of Cabdi Ni Chianáin (Ind) 180 votes and Peter Judge (SF) 295 votes left Michael O’Brien 133 votes behind Liam McDaniel, with Damien Clear (607 votes) next eliminated, electing Tom Farrell on the third count, and giving 155 votes to Liam McDaniel, 134 to Johnnie Penrose and 26 to Vinny McCormack, but just 24 to Michael O’Brien and 27 to Brian Crum (now on 899). Crum’s elimination saw half his votes go to Johnny Penrose (448), 237 to Vinny McCormack and 69 to Liam McDaniel,but just 26 to Michael O’Brien, nearly 250 votes behind Vinny McCormack as the contest ended.
ATHLONE
In the Athlone area, with 5 seats and the quota 1,423 votes, Fianna Fail’s Frankie Keena exceeded the quota on the first count, gaining 1,583 votes, with 4 seats to fill. Second placed Aengus O’Rourke (FF) on 1,314 gained 60 votes, to leave him close also, and Fine Gael’s John Dolan got 25 to bring him to 1,305. Clearly, Jamie Moran, son of Kevin ’Boxer’ Moran was going to gain a seat after 1,028 first preferences, but Louise Heavin (GP) back on 593 first preferences, ahead of Padraig Hegarty (SF) on 523 and Paul Hogan (Ind.) looked uncertain to take the fifth seat. However, the swing to the Green “wave” worked the oracle, as she advanced further ahead and by the ninth count was 220 votes clear of Padraig Hegarty, the other remaining candidate at that stage, finishing with 1,071 votes after his elimination.