Nothing beats the tension of the long election count... and recount!

My 17 hours at the local election count centre in the TF Royal Theatre last Monday and into Tuesday morning were some of the most enjoyable spent in this job since starting five years ago. It is better to start on that note lest Western People editor James Laffey gets accused of slave labour and hauled in front of court in The Hague.

Counting on Saturday ended on Sunday morning at 8.15am and my colleague Keith Bourke, whose 21-odd-hour shift covering the Castlebar count makes mine look easy in comparison, slinked out of the TF shortly after to have the sleep of sleeps.

Fortunately, I had managed to escape after Claremorris concluded at 4am, shortly after Paul Lawless was lifted shoulder-high for the first time and Michael Burke for the fourth. Tom Byrne, who worked his first election for the Western (and played a blinder, it must be said), arrived to take over on Sunday morning just as Keith began having a nightmare about a 15th count in Castlebar.

Sunday was the easiest day as I landed in around 12 noon and went home around 11pm after Swinford went to a recount. In truth, having only left the TF seven hours earlier, my spirit was still residing in the count centre. As I told James Laffey on the phone, “my body is here at home in Belcarra but my mind is in the Ruby Room”. 

That brought us to Monday and the longest shift yet. The morning started optimistically. The word was that Ballina’s first count would be in good and early and maybe the third day of counting would not be as intensive/extensive as Saturday and Sunday. The Swinford recount was a bit more up in the air, we only knew that it would be ‘late’ before there was any movement, with a single vote separating two candidates and just five votes covering three. 

The recount was one of the most memorable events of my career in journalism thus far. Seeing the candidates sat around the table listening to returning officer John Condon explain the outcome was reminiscent of Pete Souza’s famous ‘Situation Room’ photograph. Then you had people - Ministers, TDs, councillors past and present, voters, political anoraks, extremely sleepy children and journalists - all lined up around the room listening intently, trying to catch hold of what was being said by the men in the middle, like the Revolutionary Tribunal of Robespierre’s France come to life. The tension was a killer; never have so many phones rung loudly in one room than between 7.30pm and 7.45pm in the Violet Room last Monday. Heads very easily could have rolled!

A similar scene played out with the midnight hour close at hand and I nearly missed it. I burst into the room, loud enough to draw several shushes and a ‘shut the f’ up’, but in time to see the candidates sat around again, the Situation Room open for business once more. This time it was more conclusive and we were down now to just the Ballina count.

The first count for Ballina had come in around 2.30pm and with the print deadline for the Western People looming, the race was on to produce copy for Tuesday’s edition. It is difficult to write a story that will no longer be up to date once the public lay their eyes on it but we did the best we could in the circumstances and the praise that edition has received in the interim means our efforts were not in vain.

To be fair, most people understood the constraints we were under except for one gentleman who asked me at 3am if we could get soon-to-be-elected councillor Joe Faughnan on the front page for Tuesday morning’s paper. In his defence, the party atmosphere was electric when Cllr Faughnan’s result came in. Half of Knockmore must have been in the Ruby Room by then; it was their best day out since they won their last Moclair Cup.

With chip shops closed and no peanuts or Tayto for sale in the TF bar, I was famished by this point and deeply regretting my decision to politely decline a Silvermint during the second Swinford recount. But it was done, it was over, the ring was thrown into the fires of Mordor from whence it came, 30 councillors were elected and I was for the road home, to eat a full pack of Denny’s sausages (no judgement, please) and enjoy my sleep of sleeps.

All the local media played a blinder, it must be said, and I particularly applaud the ingenuity of Midwest Radio’s Steven Grealis and Rian Bailey who produced the most novel of novel ideas late in the day, asking the elected councillors for a song request at the end of their interviews. Joe Faughnan went with Wonderwall, Annie May Reape with Simply the Best.

It made me wonder what song a journalist departing the TF after three days, a shortage of sleep and countless hours of racing up and down stairs, needing to keep a close eye on counts, recounts and live blogs would choose.

I landed on ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ by Bon Jovi – unfortunately, the steel horse (the lift at the TF) seemed to be out of order!

It’s all the same, only the names will change… 

I’m a cowboy, 

On a steel horse I ride 

And I’m wanted 

Dead or alive.