Uncle and niece team kept county supplied with tally

The first excitement of the election count comes courtesy of the work of the tallymen and tallywomen, which at last week’s election was all pulled together by a dynamic uncle and daughter team, Seamus Kincaid and Catriona McVeigh, both from Mullingar.

As each box was counted, the sheet of figures was handed in to Seamus and Catriona, who immediately fed the numbers into a programme devised by Seamus.

With each additional box, the feed was updated on a large monitor rigged up by the two, and there were hordes gathered around watching the emerging patterns, photographing the tables on the screen, and Whatsapping them to friends and party supporters who weren’t able to attend the count.

There was also a feed on Facebook provided by Seamus and Catriona – and readers of the Westmeath Examiner benefited greatly from their labours, as not alone were our updates from the count centre in Athlone sourced from their work, but the comprehensive box-by-box tally printed in last week’s paper was provided by the two.

It’s all a far cry from the days when Examiner reporters had to write out the tally figures themselves on sheets of A3 paper, and rely on graphic designers to make the work legible!