Local elections: Here's how it played out in Westmeath

Fianna Fáil emerged as the largest party in this month's election to Westmeath County Council, comfortably holding its nine seats.

There was also cause for celebration for Sinn Féin and independent candidates, who increased their representation by two seats and one seat respectively.

That came at the expense of the Green Party, which lost its two sitting councillors Hazel Smyth and Louise Heavin, and Fine Gael, which failed to hold the seat vacated by Frank McDermott in Kinnegad after his retirement.

Twenty seats were filled across four electoral and after Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael is the second largest party with four seats, followed by independents (three), Sinn Féin (two) and Labour (two).

Securing the title of Westmeath’s longest serving councillor, with 40 years of experience behind him, was Cllr Mick Dollard after being elected on the first count in the six-seat Mullingar area.

He was followed by Ken Glynn of Fianna Fáil, who was elected on the second count to secure his fifth term.

There was late drama in the Mullingar Electoral Area on the Sunday night when a recount was called as just five votes separated Fine Gael’s Gerry Heery and Sinn Féin’s Julie McCourt after the ninth count.

The recount began on Monday morning and no discrepancies in votes were found, meaning Ms McCourt, who works with Sorca Clarke, TD, was elected to the fifth seat.

That also meant that Bill Collentine (FF), Aoife Davitt (FF) and Andrew Duncan (FG) retained their seats and were elected after the recount concluded at around 5pm.

The retirement of three councillors in Kinnegad at the end of last term meant the five seats in that LEA were heavily contested and a long ballot paper of 16 candidates meant a lengthy counting process.

Denis Leonard topped the poll in Kinnegad and was elected after count seven at 11pm on Saturday.

He was followed by Sinn Féin’s David Jones and Fianna Fáil newcomer Alfie Devine on count 10 on Monday.

Westmeath’s youngest candidate, Niall Gaffney (FF), a 28-year-old Barrister from Delvin, was elected on count 11, along with Fine Gael incumbent Emily Wallace, at the expense of her running mate, Seamus McDermott.

The first councillor elected in the county was Tom Farrell in the Moate area, who returned his seat at around 9.30am on Sunday, day two of the count.

He was followed by fellow incumbents Vinny McCormack, Johnnie Penrose and Liam McDaniel, who were all elected by the day’s end.

A big surprise in Athlone was the scale of support for former minister of state Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran who received 3,725 first preference votes and has confirmed his intention to run in the next general election after losing his Dáil seat in 2020.

“I am 100 per cent running for the Dáil; I’ve always said that, and that’s what I’ve been telling people on the doors,” he said.

After his surplus of more than 2,000 votes was divided on Sunday, Fianna Fáil’s Aengus O’Rourke and Frankie Keena retained their seats.

Fellow incumbents John Dolan (Fine Gael) and Paul Hogan (Independent Ireland) filled the remaining seats in the Athlone Electoral Area, where counting finished at 3pm on Monday.