Cashel Local Elections 1979

Post Advertiser, 1985, Vol 1, No 2

 

The total number of valid votes cast in the 1979 local elections in Cashel was 1,251. The number of members elected to the Urban District Council was nine and the quota was 126. Two candidates exceeded the quota on the first count and three candidates were eventually elected without reaching the quota. 

There were twenty candidates for election. Fianna Fáil had six, James Doyle, Donal G. Feehan, Kieran Fitzgerald, Kevin G. Henderson, William Hickey and William Mclnerney. Fine Gael had the next highest number with five candidates, Patrick Duane, Louise Farrell, Gus McDonnell, Richard Wood and Thomas Wood. 

Labour had four candidates Maureen Donoghue-Morrissey, Paul Flynn, Michael Thomas Holmes, and Denis O'Brien. There were five Independents, Michael Browne, Pakie Leahy, Dr. Sean J. McCarthy, Paddy O'Brien and Labhrás O'Murchu. 


Voting

The six Fianna Fail candidates got 356 votes or 28.5% of the total valid poll. One of the party candidates, William Mclnerney, got 157 votes or about 1.25 quotes. The party's backmarker, Kevin G. Henderson, had the doubtful distinction of bringing up the polling rear with 4 votes. In between William Hickey came third overall with 89 votes. The remaining candidates Donal Feehan, Kieran Fitzgerald and James Doyle, got 67, 20 and 19 votes respectively. 

The Fine Gael candidates polled 291 votes or a little over 23% . No candidate reached the quota. The party's frontrunner, Louise Farrell, got 86 first preference votes or a little more than two thirds of a quota. Following fairly closely behind were the two Woods, with Thomas getting 77 and Richard 68 votes. The remaining two candidates, Gus McDonnell and Paddy Duane, got 31 and 29 votes respectively. 

With a total poll of 108 votes the Labour party got less than 9% of the total valid poll. Front runner for the party was Denis O'Brien, who got 61 first preference votes. He was followed by Maureen O'Donoghue-Morrissey with 27 votes and then came Paul Flynn and Michael Holmes with 13 and 7 votes respectively.

The Independents got just short of 40% of the vote, with a poll of 496 votes. Away ahead of the others and of the field in general was Sean McCarthy with 282 voptes, or approximately 2.25 quotas. The remaining Independents did reasonably impressive, coming wighth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively. The foremost among them was Labhrás O'Murchú with 62 votes. After him came paddy O'Brien with 59 and Pakie Leahy with 40 votes.


Transfers

The second count was taken up with the transfer of Sean McCarthy's surplus. He had 147 transferable votes and their distribution is extremely interesting.. The biggest number went to Labhrás Ó Murchú, who got 37 of them. Next came Louise Farrell with 24 and Richard Wood with 22. Next came Donie Feehan with 13, Denis O'Brien with 12, Thomas Wood with 11, and William Hickey with 10. The remaining 18 votes were distributed between eight candidates. Four candidates James Doyle, Kieran Fitzgerald and William Mclnerney of Fianna Fail, and Paul Flynn of Labour got no transfers. 


Eliminations

The third count dealt with William McInerney's surplus. Then came the eliminations in the following order: Kevin Henderson, Michael Holmes, Paul Flynn, James Doyle, Paddy Duane, Maureen Donoghue - Morrissey, Kieran Fitzgerald, Gus McDonnell and Pakie Leahy, the first; of the Independents to be eliminated. He had 39 transferable votes and the biggest transfer, 13, went to Paddy O'Brien. Michael Browne, with 65 votes, was eleminated in the 13th count and that left four candidates still in the field, Richard Wood with 116, Thomas Wood with 116, Donie Feehan with 110 and Paddy O'Brien with 92 votes. There were three seats to . be filled and the first three were elected without reaching the quota after Paddy O'Brien was excluded and not transferred. 

The first six seats had been filled as follows: Sean McCarthy in the 1st count, William Mclnerney in the 2nd , Louise Farrell in the 3rd, Denis O'Brien in the 4th William Hickey in the 5th and Labhrás Ó Murchú in the 6th. The state of the parties in the new council was F.F. 3, F. G. 3, Labour 1, Ind. 2