May 25 2007
Dublin Central saying no to Sinn Fein
Results so far:
Ahern 34% Costello 14.6% Gregory 13.6% Donohoe 9% McDonald 7.6%Even on early results, it's a very good show for newcomer Paschal Donohoe from FG to be polling ahead of SF's darling Mary Lou (apparently called Tiochaidh Spice in Belfast) right in what would in the past have been considered a good inner city Sinn Fein stronghold, my home turf of Dublin Central. Fianna Fail were campaigning hard here in the past week but so was Paschal who impressed some of my neighbours. Maybe the changing demographics have hit Mary Lou -- this is not so much hard inner city anymore as gentrifying inner city and a lot of the people moving here in the past 5-10 years are 25-40 somethings who may remember Mary Lou from her Young FF-ish university days where many say she didn't impress them in student politics. On the other hand maybe the Cabra boxes will swing the vote towards her for a seat. Overall turnout in this area was 74% -- very high. Correction: 57.8% -- figure from another site getting early returns was wrong on this. I'm amazed RTE have been doing a post portem on the election based on their exit poll even before the tallies were coming in -- anyone from any other country in the world will know exit polls do not necessarily mean much-- especially not here where second preferences can be so influential and totally swing elections. If you are looking for constantly updated results, check out irishelection.com and politics.ie.
No responses yet