Election 2024: Barrett takes seat after marathon count in Castlebar
Harry Barrett proved transfer-friendly to take the sixth seat in Castlebar.
A marathon count in Castlebar was only completed at 8am this morning with Independent candidate Harry Barrett taking the seat of outgoing councillor Martin McLoughlin (Fianna Fáil). It was a reversal of the result in 2019 when the Belmullet native and former Labour Party town councillor narrowly lost out to McLoughlin.
Counting in Castlebar, where 19 candidates were vying for seven seats, began at around midday on Saturday and the results of the first count were announced shortly after 7pm. The first two councillors to be elected were Independent Michael Kilcoyne, who topped the poll and Fine Gael’s Ger Deere, who also exceeded the quota of 1,877.
It was the 11th count at 4.30am before a third candidate, Fianna Fáil’s Blackie Gavin surpassed the 1,877 quota. His party colleague Al McDonnell nudged over the line to take the fourth seat.
Fine Gael’s Cyril Burke edged closer to retaining his seat and had 1,779 votes at the end of the 13th count. However, he had to wait until the 14th – and final – count to be elected, taking the fifth seat in the electoral area.
There was a tighter contest for the remaining two seats. A strong performance from the transfer-friendly Harry Barrett saw him leapfrog Martin McLoughlin, leaving Barrett, outgoing councillor Donna Sheridan and Independent Stephen Kerr battling it out for the final two seats. When McLoughlin’s transfers were counted, Barrett took the sixth seat and Sheridan held on for the final seat. There was a significant gap of several hundred votes between the two winning candidates and Kerr who really struggled to attract transfers over the course of the evening despite polling a strong first preference tally of 899 votes.
The seven councillors in Castlebar are (in order of election): Cllr Michael Kilcoyne (Independent), Cllr Ger Deere (Fine Gael), Cllr Blackie Gavin (Fianna Fáil), Cllr Al McDonnell (Fianna Fáil), Cllr Cyril Burke (Fine Gael), Harry Barrett (Independent) and Cllr Donna Sheridan (Fine Gael).
