Tallies predict FF's Seamus McGrath will win two quotas in Cork

By Irish Examiner reporter Conor Ryan

Tallies predict FF's Seamus McGrath will win two quotas in Cork

By Irish Examiner reporter Conor Ryan

Fianna Fáil's Seamus McGrath has stolen the show in Cork County Hall with tallies predicting he will have more than two quotas to himself.

Early signs from the piles of ballots show that his support will split among his running mates but crucially many will remain with candidates in his Carrigaline heartland rather than with Fianna Fáil.

His personal performance has just about eclipsed the arrival of Sinn Féin as a real force on the council.

Tallies from all four counts in the Carrigrohane centre point to two Sinn Féin representatives elected on the first count in Carrigaline/Ballincollig and Cobh and three others to follow on the second count in East Cork, Cobh and Blarney/Macroom.

Counting has been slow and the first results are not expected until after 6pm.

The Labour Party has been battered in the race for first preferences. In the 10-seat Carrigaline/Ballincollig ward neither of its two candidates looks likely to poll above 2%.

East Cork voters gave its only candidate, Eric Nolan, 2% according to tallies. But Labour may be spared humiliation in the hunt for the final seats with two of its candidates in the Cobh ward at a geographic advantage in a fight with Fine Gael.

Meanwhile in Blarney/Macroom, the sitting councillor Martin Coughlan could salvage his seat with local transfers and help from the elimination of Connie Foley.

Fine Gael is in a precarious position in all four wards. If its supporters were disciplined in their vote management the party could save their seats.

However, with many protest candidates likely to be eliminated quickly, the transfers may not fast enough to save the lagging candidates.

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